An interesting place to visit in Qinhuangdao is Huachangyu, not very far from Weiziyu. The mountains on both side of the pass is very steep and treacherous and does not offer any good hiking terrain.
What makes Huachangyu well worth the trip is the double walled pass. In contains both a early Ming wall with two well preserved stone towers and a late Ming wall build with bricks. The early Ming wall is to the west (left side of the above picture) and the late Ming wall is to the east. The early wall is still in very good condition, so it seems that an additional wall was added later simply to strengthen the defence of the pass.
The two walls are approximately 35 meters apart. The late Ming wall continues up the mountain on the north and south side of the pass, while only a few traces can be found of the early wall except for the pass itself.
The early Ming watch towers are well preserved although some of the corners have been destroyed, but the still make a good impressions of how these early Ming towers were build.
Both two towers had brick crenels added in the later Ming dynasty but seems to be otherwise original.
The wall to the north of the pass is very steep, but the wall to the south can be climbed for about 200 meters before it ends at a steep mountain peak. The wall here is typical late Ming brick wall with nicely decorated holes for throwing stones at an invading enemy.
The brick wall here is fairly well-preserved although some of the brick towers have suffered some damaged.
Before the wall ends at a steep mountain peak it changes from a brick wall to a stone wall. It seems to be very normal, that the wall close to the pass was made by bricks and further away from the pass local stones and rocks were used to construct the wall.
Entrance price: free
Date of visit: April 11, 2009
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