Probably the most unique watch tower in the Eastern Hebei area is Shenweilou at the western section of Baiyangyu. Shenweilou (神威楼) meaning invincible might tower is without doubt one of the most unique, beautiful and most interesting of all the varied towers in Hebei province.
A stone tablet above the door show the name of the tower – Shenweilou (神威楼) – and also indicate when the tower was build.
The vertical text in the right side of the tablet reads:
游击将军张世忠题: Guerilla warfare General Zhang Shizhong
The vertical text in the left side of the tablet reads:
万历丙申仲夏吉立: Established in midsummer, Bingshen year of Wanli
Bingshen is the 33rd year of the 60 year cycle in the Chinese calender and Wanli was the emperor between 1572 and 1620. 2016 is the next Bingshen year, so during Wanli’s rule 1596 was the Bingshen year (2016 – 7×60). At this time Qi Jiguang, renowned for repairing the Great Wall, was already dead (1588), so apparently the repair and construction of the wall continued several years after his death.
Who was Zhang Shizhong? It seems not much is known about this General, at least not available in English, so it is difficult to say exactly who he was.
Inside the tower consist of one single room with a barrel-vault top. Each of the three walls that would be facing an approaching enemy (the west, north and east wall) from the north have three embrasures to engage the enemy. One big embrasure in the the middle for shooting arrows and a smaller one at each side for throwing down rocks if the enemy got close to the tower. These holes was also used for dropping thunder stones at the enemy. Thunder stone was a hollow stone filled with gunpowder that could inflict great damaged when exploding. The Chinese name for these holes is 雷石口 (léi shí kǒu) which translate to thunder stone opening. In the outer wall grooves were cut in the wall to make it easier to drop the stones (see the first picture in this post) – to my knowledge this is a feature rarely seen in Eastern Hebei.
Opposite the unusually wide doorway is a screen wall where a stone tablet once was. The stone tablet has disappeared but probably told the story about the construction of the Shenweilou tower, and might also have given more information about General Zhang Shizhong.
Most of the towers along this part of the Great Wall are placed on top of the wall, but the Shenweilou tower is placed on the outside of the wall facing the enemy side.
Another feature of the Shenweilou tower is a stairway on the back of the wall. These stairways are very common along the wall and give easy access for the defenders to the wall.
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