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Great Wall At Badaling

Northern Gate of Capital Beijing

Badaling is located at the northern entrance of the Juyongguan Pass in northwest Beijing, and has been a military stronghold for soldiers throughout the ages. Built in the Ming Dynasty, the Badaling Great Wall is the earliest section of the Great Wall open to visitors, and the most majestic and complete section, too.

Badaling is located at the northern entrance of the Juyongguan Pass in northwest Beijing, and was a key military battleground for soldiers of all ages. The current surviving Badaling Great Wall was built during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 500 years. The Badaling Great Wall is the earliest section of the Great Wall open to visitors, is also the most majestic and most complete section of the Great Wall, has received nearly 500 heads of state and government, such as U.S. President Nixon, Reagan, Obama, British Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Beijing’s North Fortress: Badaling

Juyongguan Pass is located 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing. It is a major passage into Beijing from the north, with steep hills on both sides and only a narrow valley road in the middle. The Guangou Road is 20 kilometers long from northwest to southeast. The southernmost point is called “Nankou”, which is the current Nankou Town in Changping, Beijing, and the “northern point” is Badaling.

Badaling was the first line of defense of the Guangou Road, which led south to Beijing, north to Yanqing, and west to Xuanhua and Zhangjiakou, thus it was called “Badaling”, which means “accessible from all directions”. As the ancient saying goes, “The Badaling is more dangerous than the stronghold of Juyongguan Pass”, because of the special terrain of Badaling Pass, since ancient times it is the place where soldiers and families must fight for, the Northern Wei Dynasty had built the Great Wall in this vicinity, but this section of Badaling Great Wall, which is well preserved till today, is part of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall.

In 1568, Qi Jiguang, an anti-Japanese general, was transferred to the north and rebuilt the Great Wall. The Great Wall stretches for hundreds of kilometers from Shanhaiguan Pass to Juyongguan Pass in the west, which is one of the reasons why the Badaling section of the Great Wall is so well preserved, considering its strategic position.

Manywhere Trivia:
Badaling Great Wall in holidays is the perfect example of the Chinese phrase “People Mountain People Sea”.

The completed Badaling Great Wall is centered on the Guancheng, the Southern Wall of which stretches along the ridge and into Hebei and Shanxi. The northern wall extends northeastward along the mountains until it reaches the highest peak of Badaling: North Eighth Tower. Then the Great Wall Turns to Another Direction from the North Eighth Tower, heading southeast.

The North Eighth Tower is the highest defence tower on the Badaling Great Wall, with a Panoramic View. Here you can overlook the endless walls that wind up on both sides of the ridge. For those who don’t want to exert themselves or for those who are physically challenged. The Cable Car is a very good choice, which is a direct route to the North Eighth Tower from the foot of the mountain,

The Construction of the Great Wall

The structure of the Badaling Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty was exquisite and the materials used were strictly selected, especially the additional defense towers proposed by Qi Jiguang, which greatly improved the Great Wall’s defense ability and was a rare large-scale fortification in the world.

The Great Wall at Badaling is generally built on a ridge with a steeper slope on both sides, and the walls are 6 to 9 meters high, The Highs and Lows are Obvious. The wall of Badaling Great Wall is divided into inner and outer sides, the direction facing Beijing is regarded as the inner side, and the direction facing the northern foreign invasion is regarded as the outer side. There are short brick walls above the inner and outer walls, and the inner wall is called Yu Wall and was built to protect the soldiers. Outside in the direction of the enemy invasion, built about one-person-high Battlements, the square holes in the battlements were called firing holes, and were used by soldiers on the walls during wartime for shooting and firing arrows.

The Enemy Tower of the Great Wall of Badaling

At intervals on the city walls there were hollow fortresses called Defence Towers. A defense tower usually have two stories, and is more than 10 meters high, 30 to 40 meters in circumference, with a Pallet Wall and Observation Hole around the top. On peaceful days a Defense Tower was used as a resting place for soldiers or to stockpile weapons and provisions, and was immediately transformed into a small bunker when the war is on, which greatly improves the defense performance of the Great Wall.

The defense tower is not a beacon. Many people will mistake the defence tower on the Great Wall as a beacon, but the real Beacon is not part of the Great Wall, but built separately in the Nearby higher mountain tops. If you encounter an enemy advancing, the defenders on the beacon will immediately set off wolf smoke to report the battle situation. As early as two years ago in the Zhou Dynasty, there was a story about the King Zhouyouwang who played the beacon with his lords just for the smile of Lady Baosi.

In order to avoid the accumulation of water on the walls, the Great Wall had a good drainage system. There are grooves on the wall to channel water, and both the wall and defence towers have Drainage Outlets, with Spouts outside, Which directs water away from the wall to avoid water damages. In addition, the drainage outlets on top of the walls were always located on the inside walls to prevent enemies use them for climbing.

Unpredictable Weather

The Great Wall of Badaling is located in a mountainous area where the weather is unpredictable, and one second of Clear Sky might be followed by a rainstorm or a Sunrise on the Wall while Rainstorm Outside the Wall. It’s a beautiful sight, but the Rainbows are even more breathtaking when the weather clears up.

But the most beautiful moment here is the Sunset, when the city walls and the hillsides are Painted Golden by the setting sun. As the sun sinks behind the mountains, only Purple Sunset and the tranquil Great Wall of Badaling remain to guard the ancient capital of Beijing.