Because of a vacation back in Denmark and a wedding in a few weeks, this post have under way for a long time but here it is.

The Taolinkou area northeast of Tangshan has long been on my list of places to go. Especially because it seems to be possible to hike for a long time in a fairly deserted area, even though the wall is in poor conditions at some places.

In the middle of July I made an attempt to reach a specific part of the Taolinkou Great Wall but was first stopped by a big outdoor market which totally blocked the road and made it impossible to continue. An attempt to find an alternative road to the area also failed because of the quality of the road, which in the mountains suddenly became very bad and the big stones threatened to damage the undercarriage of the car.

Luckily the bad road was located very close to another part of the Great Wall, which is connected to the Taolinkou Great Wall, so even though it was not possible to reach the intended section this day it way still possible to explore some nice Hebei Great Wall.

A closer look in the area reveal that the wall splits in two for a short stretch and then meet again on the next mountain. This might be to strengthen the defensive force of the pass here or maybe it is a result of different ideas in different building periods during the Ming dynasty.

The north part seems older with no visible watchtowers although Google Earth images suggest at least one watchtower, while the southern part of the wall still has intact watchtowers. This might suggest that the northern part was build prior to the southern part but no information regarding this area has been found so far.

The weather is too hot for any whole day trips at the moment (at least in my opinion) so the idea was mainly to go there and get a feeling of the difficulties and challenges in the area to help plan future trips, and this is most likely an area I will return to later.

Entrance price: free

Date of visit: July 12, 2008

I talked to an American friend today, who at the moment is in China to visit the Great Wall. Unfortunately, it seems that all the wild Great Wall in the Beijing area is off-limit now because of the Olympic, and it seems to be unknown when the wall will be reopened. A lot of local public security volunteers seems to be stationed at the entrance to the Great Wall to ward off away people trying to enter the wall. I’m not sure about the situation outside the Beijing area, but I doubt that there should be any problems here.

I’m not sure exactly why the wild Great Wall is off-limit now. Maybe the authorities are afraid of people getting injured if the try to enter the wall and that would create some unwanted bad publicity during the Olympic, however everyone hiking on this type of wall should be aware of the danger and know that it’s at their own risk. The Great Wall have previous been used to stage demonstrations, but I doubt that anyone would use the wild Great Wall to stage any kind of demonstration since no media would ever go here.

One of the main features of Qingshanguan is the watergate located east of the fortress town and used as the main entrance today.

Presumably the gate used to have a one ton bronze floodgate. It could be closed to store water and opened to wash away any invading troops.

It is believed that the bronze gate was washed away in a flood in the 13th year of the Qing Emperor Guangxu (1871 – 1908).

The fortress of the Qingshan Pass have recently been rebuilt and now welcomes tourists. Furthermore a small hotel and restaurant have been build.

Many of the houses from the old fortress have been carefully rebuild and gives a good impression on how life might have been many years ago during the Ming Dynasty.

The roads are narrow and many of the houses is now used for various things to help the tourists like police station and small shops.

Apparently some of the houses can also be used for accommodation for tourists visiting this remote location far away from the the pulsating life in Beijing.

Like the rest of the Qingshanguan the fortress is also full of trees and small bushes which gives the whole area a very relaxed feeling and provides a welcomed shadow from the hot Chinese summer.

The fortress wall consist of a north and south (seen above) gate and the wall is connected to the Great Wall. So far no repair have been made on the wall so only the houses have been rebuild.

After admiring the pictures of Qingshanguan in the book Hebei – The Great Wall Legacy I finally decided to go there myself to have a look and see if it’s really as beautiful as the pictures suggest.

Arriving at Qingshanguan (青山关, qīngshānguān) it’s clear how the place got its name meaning green mountain pass – it’s surely one of the most green places I’ve ever visited the Great Wall and the whole area is like one big garden.

Qingshanguan is located in the north-eastern part of Tangshan in the Hebei province. The roads in this area are extremely bad so it’s a bumpy ride to get there but it’s surly worth the trouble of getting there.

From the Jingshen expressway either follow S262 towards Qianxi (迁西) and then follow the signs towards Qingshanguan or follow S252 north towards Qian’an (迁安) and continue all the way to Qinglong (青龙) and then follow S251 west for about 35 kilometres and then go south over the mountain to Qingshanguan. The latter of the two suggestions is much longer than the first but the condition of the road is far better, probably making it just as fast and a much more enjoyable ride.

The Great Wall at Qingshanguan was first build during the reign for the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu, from 1368 to 1398. Later the wall was renovated and reinforced by the famous General Qi Jiguang (1528 – 1588) well-known for his reinforcement of the Great Wall in eastern China.

From the restored fortress of Qingshanguan the wall rises steeply to the north and south.

The Wall here is an interesting mix of both stone and brick wall, and while stone walls seems to dominate the south ridge, brick walls is the most dominating type of the north ridge.

Entering is the wall is a bit complicated because the lack of good signs. One option is to enter from the fortress where signs show the way to the wall, however this seems illogical when first arriving at Qingshanguan and the best way is probably to climb a small path on some rocks north of the watergate but no signs show that this is an actual possibility. Judging by the conservations among other visitors we were not the only ones having problems finding the way up to the wall.

Once at the wall it’s possible to walk for about 1 kilometre before the wall becomes really steep. Since we spend a lot of time searching for the entrance to the wall we decided to turn back here, leaving us enough time to explore the restored fortress as well, however I’ll surely return one day to make an attempt to reach the top at Qingshanguan.

As many other places away from Beijing the amount of tourists here is very limited so it’s possible to be more or less alone on the wall at Qingshanguan.

Entrance price: 30 RMB

Date of visit: June 9, 2008

China.org.cn has an interesting article regarding the use of taxi when going sightseeing in the Beijing area. The advice in the article can of cause also be used in other areas of China.

See the article here.

China.org.cn reported on May 11 that an ambitious three years preservation project for the Great Wall has been launched by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

A survey of Ming dynasty (1368-1662 AD) Great Wall is in full swing, and repair has started for Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) Great Wall.[...] The major work this year is to finish repairs on the Qin-era sections of the Wall and investigate what needs to be done on the Han Dynasty sections.

About 5 million yuan has already been invested, and a total of 100 million yuan is believed to be necessary to complete the work.

The Great Wall, mainly located in the central and western parts of the region, features architecture from several eras, ranging from the Warring States Period (403-221 BC) to the Ming Dynasty. Some sections, built in the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) and the Ming Dynasty, are listed as national cultural relics.

Today China.org.cn bring a short article about the Great Wall, among that tips on how to reach some of the most visited sections for the Great Wall in Beijing including Badaling, Simatai and Jinshanling.

See the article here: link

Google Earth is a very useful tool to plan trips to the Great Wall, but unfortunately only a small part of the wall is covered by high resolution image – among them Huangyaguan. After looking at the Huangyaguan area I located a place where it seemed possible to visit the unrestored wall.

About 1.9 kilometres south of Huangyaguan a small road leads west into the mountains, and after about 5 kilometres a sign show the way to the Old Great Wall – 古长城. From here it’s about 1.2 kilometres to the path leading the the Great Wall.

Just before the sign it’s possible to se the remains of a watch tower on a mountain peak close to the road. This part of the wall can also be seen from the top of the Old Great Wall, and close to the road some parts of the wall coming down form the mountain is visible. However this part of the wall is rather steep so it is recommended to follow the signs towards the Old Great Wall.

It’s possible to park the car close to the path leading up to the Great Wall, and from here it’s about 10 minutes hike to the wall.

The wall here is made of stone and very difficult to climb, but fortunately a small path have been cleared just south of the wall heading westwards.

Eastwards the wall winds its way over a small mountaintop and traces of a double wall is clearly visible here.

The wall here is a magnificent sight and the huge amount of work and skilled craftsmanship involved in making this wall and fitting the different sized stones together almost makes this wall a piece of art.

It was getting late so I just considered this to a reconnaissance trip to prepare for a future visit. I only walked about 500 meters before turning around a returning to the car, but it seems possible to continue much further.

Entrance price: free

Date of visit: May 10, 2008

Between the walls of Huangyaguan a small museum tells the story of the Great Wall and especially Huangyaguan. Unfortunately all the text is in Chinese, but it shows some pictures of how the wall at Huangyaguan looked like before it was restored.

This picture seems to show the area close to the Widows’ Tower and clearly the wall was in very bad condition before the restoration. When looking at the Widows’ Tower today it seems that the lower half of the tower is still more or less original, and only the upper half of the tower have been replaced by new bricks. Looking at the old picture the upper half of the tower is clearly missing. For some reason it seems that the Widows’ Tower is the only place at Huangyaguan, open to public, where part of the original wall have been preserved when the wall was restored.

Close to another watch tower some of the bricks are missing, showing the stone structure beneath. There is no description at the location so it is unclear if this is the original wall or just to show the interior of the wall.

I would be nice if it was possible to buy a small book showing these pictures and pictures from the renovation. Unfortunately, like most other places, the small shops and souvenir stalls only sell the books you can buy anywhere else, and one can only hope for some more innovation when it come to the souvenirs to be sold at the Great Wall.