One of the most impressive sections of the Great Wall I visited in Ningxia is the Guidegou (归德沟) section, located in the Helan Mountains close to Shizuishan. Although spending a lot of time searching Google Earth for traces of the Great Wall, this section was completely unknown to me, so fortunately some of the local people I visited was kind enough to show me this section.
The wall here is divided into two sections, a north and a south section, however theses were probably originally connected to each other. The northern section is less than 100 meter and the southern section is about 500 meters long. The northern section seems to have three watchtowers, two of the made by stone, one of them overlooking the gully below, but no traces of the wall can be seen in the bottom of the gully. At some point there was probably some kind of defensive structure down in the the gully as well, otherwise it would have left the defence wide open.
The northern sections seems to be the most interesting one, however due to heavy wind and facing a dangerous hike we decided to return to the safety of the gully. Our local guide told a story about a kid that climbed at southern wall, but he was unable to get down again and had to be rescued. When looking at the steep slope on both side of the wall it seems highly likely that one could be caught up there.
Entrance price: free
Date of visit: October 9, 2008
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