Not far from the Guidegou Great Wall in Ningxia is another short section of the Great Wall called Jiucaigou (韭菜沟). The sign at the bottom of the gully call this part for Jiucaigou West Great Wall, probably because another section about 1.6 km form here is also considered to be Jiucaigou.
Jiucai is a special kind of vegetable (Chinese leeks) widely used in Chinese cuisine. Not much information is available in English regarding this location, and only a short passage can be found in Bradt, however this is indeed a very interesting part of the wall, although the total length of the wall is only about 225 meters.
Jiucaigou is located northeast of the industrial city of Shizuishan in the north-western part of Ningxia and very close to the Wudangmiao temple.
The area north of the wall is military area, so don’t try to wander around or you might find yourself in trouble very soon. In fact, a fence that you need to scale to get to the wall closes the road leading up the gully. Another option is to follow the old riverbed in the bottom of the gully.
A good place to start is at a small farm restaurant that serves delicious local dishes – don’t miss the special milk tea served with some kind of grain and milk candy. Of cause the local speciality being mutton. The restaurant is located next to the monastery, and from here it’s possible to either follow the road or enter the dried-up riverbed.
From the restaurant it is about half an hours hike to the climb to reach the Great Wall. The climb seems pretty steep, but it’s possible to follow a small path most of the way and there are not so many loos stones so the climb is not very difficult.
Once at the top the strange zigzag pattern of the Jiucaigou is clearly visible. It seems like a strange place to put a wall since there is no clear sign of any wall in the bottom of the gully so the enemy could easily pass here. Two watchtowers further down do suggest that there might once have been some more wall at Jiucaigou, but the wall at the top is the only survivor today.
Considering the age (Ming dynasty), the condition of the wall is pretty good, and a few places it’s even possible to see some of the stone facing that probably used to cover and protect the wall. The top tower is still well preserved and seems to have been constructed using stones while the other towers made are of mud/adobe like the wall itself.
Click on one of the above pictures to see a Gallery with more pictures from Jiucaigou.
Entrance price: free
Date of visit: October 9, 2008
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
Ningxia Beacon tower
Sanguankou
Another place to visit the Great Wall is Sanguankou (三关口 – Sān guān kǒu). Sanguankou means Three gate pass but not much is left of the gate at this place. The wall is located at a gap in the southern part of the Helan Mountains 40 kilometres southwest of Yinchuan.
It’s a truly amazing sight to arrive at Sanguankou, right on the border to Inner Mongolia, to see how the wall continuing as far as the eye can see south through the desolate dry landscape. The vast emptiness of this location, even though not far from the bustling city of Yinchuan, makes it seem like stepping into another world.
This is one of the few passes going all the way trough the mountains, so no doubt that this was once a very important pass of the Great Wall.
At several places the wall has been destroyed by water passing trough the wall or to make way for roads. Some places it even seems that small caves have been dug into the bottom of the wall to provide shelter for shepherds. Otherwise the wall is in fairly good condition here, and it’s really amazing that a wall of this kind can survive for about 500 years.
Entrance price: free
Date of visit: October 8, 2008
During at recent business trip to Ningxia and Gansu I had the chance to visit some Great Wall in the area, especially around Yinchuan (capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) where several locations offer Great Wall sightseeing.
One of the visited places was Shuidonggou (水洞购 – shuǐ dòng gōu), which mean Water Cave Gully. Here the Ming Great Wall pass a small tributary, that connects to the Yellow River 9 kilometres north-west of there.
The wall here is without any repair although some sources claim that this section will be renovated, however I didn’t see any sign of repair. Some places the wall is not much more than a pile of sand, but still it’s very interesting to see how this mud wall have survived so many years, and it’s difficult not to be impressed by the workmanship that have allowed the wall to survive so many years.
From Shuidonggou the Great Wall continues east into the Shanxi province. The wall can easily be found by following the express way from Yinchuan to the airport. From the airport exit go north and follow the road parallel to the express way.
Entrance price: free
Date of visit: October 8, 2008
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