Great Wall - Yangguan

Yangguan Pass is located west of Dunhuang and it’s essentially the end of the Great Wall. It was a major stronghold on the western border of the Han Dynasty, alongside Yumenguan Pass, east of Dunhuang. Emperor Wu ordered the construction of the two passes to protect the frontier and Dunhuang. The two passes were connected by a 40mi (64km) wall interspersed with beacon towers at 3mi (5km) intervals.   

Both passes served as trading posts on the Silk Road, providing food and water supplies to travellers and armies. Just like Dunhuang, Yangguan profited from the Silk Road trade, until its decline during the Ming era.

With the exception of one beacon tower, nothing else remains of the pass as it was buried beneath the sand dunes, long ago. However, there is a museum in its place exhibiting thousands of items from the two passes and the Silk Road.

The Great Wall is a remarkable structure, built by multiple dynasties across two millennia. It spans over 13,000mi (21,000km) across various parts of China. A lot of effort went into protecting the northern and northwest borders. Mountains and rivers were used as natural barriers and earth, reeds, bricks and stones were used to build and reinforce the Walls. Millions of people were conscripted to work on the Wall and many died on the job. Various ethnic groups ruled, each empire replacing the other through a series of rebellions or military campaigns.

The Great Wall is a Chinese cultural icon and a symbol of its unification. It is a representation of stoicism, cohesiveness and national pride. It has inspired paintings, poems, operas, stories and legends. But most of all it is an engineering marvel.

Let me leave you with a famous folk story called, The Tears of Meng Jiangnu:

Meng Jiangnu met and fell in love with the fugitive scholar, Fan Xiliang. Not long after they were married, Fan was found by the Imperial Guards and promptly dragged away as a prisoner to work on the Great Wall. Meng waited for him day and night. When winter came and Fan did not return, she packed some warm clothes and began her long journey to search for him. When she arrived at the Wall, she was informed that Fan had died and was buried inside the Great Wall. Devastated, she wept for days at the Wall until a section of it collapsed. There in the crumbled heap, Meng found her husband’s bones. She carefully wrapped them in his winter clothes and made the long journey home where Fan had a proper burial.

I may have started at the Old Dragon’s Head near the Bohai Sea but I think I have finally found the dragon’s tail. How about you?




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Great Wall - Jiaoshan

About 4mi (6.4km) from Old Dragon’s Head, in the centre of a large town, was the old fortress Shanhaiguan (Shanhai Pass). Built by General Xu Da in 1381, it was fortified and expanded by General Qi Jiguang in 1583 to seal off passage from the Manchu tribes in the northeast. It was the most important pass on the Wall.

Shanhaiguan did a fine job safeguarding the country until years of drought and famine gave rise to numerous peasant rebellions. At the same time, the Ming armies were busy defending the northern borders from the Manchu tribes. It all came to a head in 1644 when the city of Beijing fell at the hands of the rebels. Hoping to oust the rebels and restore order, a powerful Ming general sought assistance from the Manchu leader. Forming an alliance, the general surrendered Shanhaiguan, essentially throwing the doors open for the Manchu to enter. However, the Manchu had their own agenda, and once through the Pass they set about conquering Beijing and replacing the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty was born and it ruled for nearly 300 years until it was abolished in 1912.

The fortress, in a near-square shape, had a barbican on its east side. Arrow towers used to be at each gate but only one remains today. The walls were made of rammed earth covered with bricks. Views of Jiaoshan Wall to the north and the sea to the south can be seen from the top of the east tower.

Jiaoshan Wall was outside the city and it was named after the highest peak north of Shanhai Pass. Its translation is ‘Horn Peak’. This is the Great Wall’s first mountain climb. Built during the reign of the first Ming emperor (c. 14thC), Jiaoshan sealed the access between Shanhai Pass and the mountainous region of the China-Manchuria border.

Jiaoshan was built of locally quarried materials. A small section, less than a mile, has been restored with wide paths leading up the mountain to the unrestored section, where the path began to narrow. Some of the battlements along the Wall were built on only one side, with steep cliffs providing natural defence on the other. A few of the watchtowers were so high that metal ladders were installed to provide access.

Proceeding up the mountain, Jiaoshan ended at the Big Flat Summit on Dapingding Peak. Here I was afforded views of Jiaoshan Wall and Shanhaiguan to the south, Changshou Mountain to the north and the substantial Shihe Reservoir to the west.



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Great Wall - Laolongtou

The Great Wall of China (‘’the Wall”) is one of the most remarkable man-made structures in the world, with the longest building timeline. Beginning in the 7th century BC it continued on and off over several centuries until it peaked in the mid-17th century AD.

The Chinese were masters at building walls. First, they built them around their homes and cities as protection from their ferocious nomadic neighbours. Then, they built them to protect their borders from the wars that raged within their own nation. Most walls were of varying lengths and scattered throughout the land.

The Qin Dynasty squashed the various internal wars, unifying China in 221BC and established the First Empire. Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor and a ruthless ruler, used hundreds of thousands of people to connect and extend the existing walls for defence. By the end of this dynasty 3,000mi (4,800km) of wall ran along the northern border.

The Han Dynasty came next and building on the Wall ceased for a short period. Focus turned to peacetime and opening trade with the West. However, the nomads began raiding again, reprising the need for the Wall to be repaired and extended further. Safeguarding travelling traders became just as important as keeping the nomads out.

After the Han, the Wall was left neglected and crumbling. Vulnerable to attack, it was the sheer size of the Chinese army that kept most intruders at bay until Kublai Khan, a fierce Mongol warrior, forced his way into the capital and took the throne. With both sides of the Wall now Mongol territory, the Wall was no longer needed. Abandoned, much of the early construction disintegrated over time and very little now remains.

The Mongol rule was never accepted. A few decades after Kublai’s death, an uprising forced all the Mongols out and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD) came into power. With the capital city in Beijing, it was much too close to the enemy border. A new wall was rebuilt from scratch. At time of completion, the Wall was 5,500mi (8,850km) long, built by millions of soldiers and forced labourers over a period of 200 years. It is the remnants of this Wall that continues to exist today.

This journey of 2,183mi (3,513km) will begin at its most eastern end where the Wall meets the sea. Regarded as the start of the Great Wall, it is known as Laolongtou (Old Dragon’s Head) because the structure, consisting of a beacon tower and battlement walls, resembles a dragon drinking water from the sea.

The Wall twists and turns its way through the landscape, just like the legendary Chinese Dragon. It crosses mountains tightly straddling narrow cliffs, over lakes and sometimes under, into valleys and through deserts until it reaches the westernmost point ending in a remote outpost in Yangguan.

From the sea breeze on the wall of Laolongtou to the searing sun of the Gobi Desert, I hope to piece together the lengthy story of the Great Wall and the Emperors, Dynasties and Generals that left their mark on it.

Fast facts to give some sense of timeline and the main dynasties during the Wall’s construction:

5th to 3rd century BC – Warring States (Chinese states fighting amongst each other)

221 to 206 BC – Qin Dynasty (First Empire)

206 BC to 220 AD – Han Dynasty

386 to 577 AD – Northern and Southern Dynasties

1125 to 1234 AD – Jin Dynasty (conquered by Mongols)

1368 to 1644 AD – Ming Dynasty (Builders of currently existing wall)



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