About 9 kilometres from Sanguanko, along the road towards Yinchuan the remains of a beacon tower can we seen.

The tower is  badly weathered but it’s clearly man made, and most likely build in connection with

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

After some investigation I think this section should be called Jiejiagou:

Chinese name: 竭家沟

Pinyin: jié jiā gōu

English:
jié: make the utmost effort
jiā: home/house/family
gōu: gulley

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

I planed to make an online gallery with some of my many pictures of the Great Wall long time ago, but my plan to open the gallery with all the pictures at one time proved to be too difficult.

Now I’ve decided to start off the gallery and then add pictures whenever I have time to do so. The first pictures are from Liujiakou in Hebei. Please click on the picture above to go to the gallery, and check on the blog for any updates of the gallery. Every update will be announced here on the blog.

At the end of September I went back to Liujiakou (刘家口) in the western part of Qinhuangdao, Hebei, a place I visited for the first time in February this year. Back then it was very cold so I only stayed a short time, so this time I planed to reach the top of the mountain – a hike of about 2.2 kilometres. Unfortunately, I misjudged the time so I only had time to go to where the steep climb begins before I had to turn back, and wait for another time to climb the mountain. I probably take too many photos, so even a very short hike can take a long time.

The main feature at Liujiakou is the cross-water watchtower, the biggest of its kind in Hebei province. The tower is 10 meters long, 9 meters wide and 12 meters high with a 6.36-meter high water passage in the middle.

According to one of the locals, the tower contain a stone tablet with some inscriptions, but the access to the tower is not easy since the wall close to the tower have completely disappeared.

From the tower the wall can be accessed on both the west and east side. So far I have only hiked the east side, and from the tower it’s only a short walk to the beginning of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall here is in very bad condition, and the original brick covering can only be seen in a few places including the watchtowers.

To the north of the wall there is a distinct ditch running along the wall. This is probably the place where the stones to build the main part of the wall was collected, however later it might have served as an extra defence against an advancing enemy.

From the top of the wall, there is a beautiful view to the west where the wall winds its way towards the Lengkou section.

When coming from Bejing follow the Jingshen expressway towards Qinhuangdao and exit towards Qian’an (迁安) and follow S252 north towards Qinglong (青龙). At Jianchangyingzhen (建昌营镇) take S363 to the east and continue until Liujiayingxiang, and then follow the road from here to the north. Another way is to take the exit on the expressway after the Qian’an exit and then follow the road north.

Entrance price: free

Date of visit: September 30, 2008

Yesterday I flew from Beijing to Yinchuan in the Ningxia province for some business meetings.

I managed to get a few photos of the Beijing Great Wall from the plane. The photos are by no means  perfect, however it gives a good impression on how the Great Wall winds its way trough the mountains.

Apart from the business meetings I should also have some time to visit the Great Wall around Yinchuan.

During a visit from my family we made a one day trip to Laolongtou (老龙头) a few kilometres south of Shanhaiguan (山海关). Although it was heavily damaged by the invading Eight-Nation alliance in 1900 and restored in 1984, it is still worth a visit especially because this is the place where the Great Wall meets the Bohai Sea. 

Most of the wall here is completely new, but some of the original stones can still be see since it was reused during the renovation, and part of the original Ninghai wall is preserved behind glass.

One of the most impressive parts of Laolongtou is the Chenghai Tower, which stands majestically looking out at the see from the top of the Laolongtou fortification, looking down at the Great Wall stretching into the sea.

Laolongtou was first constructed by General Xu Da (1332—1385) during the early Ming Dynasty. When he constructed the Shanhaiguan Pass, Laolongtou was chosen as the place where the wall meets the sea. Later in 1579 General Qi Jiguang extended the wall 23 meters into the sea.

After large parts of China was united during the Qing dynasty, the Great Wall at Laolongtou lost it military significance but remained a popular place to visit the sea.

Laolongtou is still a popular place to visit, but being so far away from Beijing it’s normally no problem to visit without too many tourists as long as you avoid the Chinese holidays.

From Laolongtou the Great Wall continues north towards the fortified city of Shanhaiguan and Jiaoshan mountain. All three places can be visited in one day, and Shanhaihuan can easily be reached by car by following the Beijing-Shenyang expressway or by train or bus from Beijing.

Entrance price: 50 RMB

Date of visit: September 16, 2008

Xinhua News Agency reported earlier in September that a preservation and protection project is well under way. As reported earlier an ambitious three years preservation project for the Great Wall has been launched by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

According to the official, preservers has finished field survey earlier, and the project is expected to be finished in two or three years.

Preservation and protection will go to a 2-km-long section thatlocates in the Beibao Village, Qingshuihe County, which was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D. to 1644), government official told Xinhua.

The Great Wall in Hebei and especially the Beijing area have been well described and documented, however not much information regarding the Great Wall in Liaoning province is available. Some books show an inaccurate map but many still show the Great Wall to end at Shanhaiguan in Hebei, and the same goes for most map – even maps of Liaoning seldom shows the wall or only a few kilometres close to Shanghaiguan.

Living in the city of Tangshan (Hebei province) I only have a two hours drive to the Hebei/Liaoning border, so it’s my goal in the next few years to further explore the Liaoning Great Wall. Much of it has long disappeared because the stones and brick have been used in other constructions or because the quality of the wall simply didn’t allow it to survive for hundreds of years.

Last weekend I started my quest to explore the Great Wall in Liaoning going to an area northeast of the old fortified city of Qiansuo and located in the shadow of Mount Sanshan.

The first people we asked how to get to the wall told us to go to Jiumenkou 20 kilometres away, even though if they had turned their head they would have seen the Great Wall a few hundreds meters away. Others did know about the Great Wall and showed us to a path leading to the wall. Unfortunately, the area was covered with cornfields making it very difficult to locate any path and finding the right path was even more difficult. When the weather deteriorated, I decided to come back another time when the crops have been harvested and the path should be more clearly visible.

There seems to be a watchtower just south of the wall, east of the road, however this might also be related to the monastery located on the opposite side of the road. The monastery have been rebuild since the Google Earth images was taken, and large parts of the wall seems to have disappeared since then or maybe just concealed by the crops.