Zhongwei is a small city located on the northern bank of the Yellow River. North of the city and on the edge of Tengger Desert are remnants of the Great Wall. It was built during the Qin Dynasty (210 BC – 259 AD), when China was unified for the first time and served as a minor pass during the Ming era.
The walls were built out of earth and stone only, unlike the sections to the far east that were reinforced and covered in bricks. This led to extensive erosion of the Zhongwei Wall that was impacted further by the Tengger Desert’s ongoing expansion. The shifting sand has swallowed many towers as the desert continues to move south towards the city of Zhongwei. Some parts of the Wall have been erased completely with the growth of local industrialisation.
Just to the northwest of Zhongwei Airport’s runway is a very large, solid, mud-brick tower with a wall enclosure that was possibly either a fort or a fortified gate of the Wall’s pass. The line of the wall vanishes here to only appear sporadically for the next 150mi (240km).
The main landmark in the city is the maze-like structure of Gao Miao Temple, where China’s three main religions - Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism - are combined into one. The temple has a staggering number of pavilions, up to 260, that are connected with bridges, leading up and down between levels. It is beautifully decorated in bright colours with Chinese dragons on its rooftops, bells hanging off the eaves and more than hundred religious sculptures inside.
The quirky attraction at Gao Miao is actually the underground display of statues, suffering different forms of punishment and torture, meted out based on the crime committed. These strange and gruesome scenes are meant to depict life in hell based on ancient Chinese legends.
This may seem like a unique or unusual ‘attraction’ but it is not dissimilar to the ‘Ten Gates of Hell’ on display in Haw Par Villa, Singapore.
It is certainly not for the faint of heart or for the young.
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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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