Jinshanling
Great Wall
By
WU XINYI & GAO YAN
The Jinshanling Great Wall.
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The Great Wall is the universal symbol of
China. Starting from the eastern Shanhaiguan Pass, and ending
at the Jiayuguan Pass in the west, the Great Wall fully merits
its designation as a wonder of the world. In Hebei Province
alone, it runs for 2,000 kilometers, through more than 200 passes.
The Jinshanling Great Wall lies in the mountainous area of Luanping
County, Hebei Province, and has a total length of 10.5 kilometers.
Essence of the Great Wall
The Jinshanling Great Wall was first built
in the sixth century during the Northern and Southern Dynasties
(420-589). Along it are 67 watchtowers, all in different styles,
at average intervals of 150 meters.
During the Ming Dynasty, General Qi Jiguang
improved the structure of the Jinshanling Great Wall by making
it higher and denser and by building double walls at strategic
sections. Its gentle gradient makes Jinshanling a vulnerable
spot, easy to attack but difficult to defend. At the Jinshanling
section of the Great Wall, however, the walls are more solid,
and the watchtowers taller, and more concentrated. Viewed from
a distance, the Jinshanling Great Wall is like a giant dragon,
curving its path over the mountain peaks whose line it follows.
Many Great Wall researchers and cultural relics
experts, including Luo Zhewen and Zhu Xiyuan, have been coming
to Jinshanling since 1980, and consider it to be of strategic
importance, great aesthetic value, and to reflect the very essence
of the Great Wall.
Photographers' Favorite
Photographers know that the best place to
take pictures of the Great Wall is not Badaling or Shanghaiguan,
but Jinshanling. The Great Wall from Simatai in Beijing to Jinshanling
in Hebei is the best preserved stretch, so many overseas visitors
choose it. It is said that there are more overseas Great Wall
climbers in Jinshanling than Chinese. People also say that anyone
who has climbed Jinshanling is not interested in seeing any
other part of the Great Wall, as it retains its original Ming
Dynasty outlook, and so vividly reflects the full ethos of that
epoch.
Members of the Great Wall Green Project Investigation
Group have walked the entire length of the Great Wall, and many
of them believe Jinshanling to be its most beautiful section.
Not having been fully renovated, parts of it are in ruins, so
it has a more natural ambience than other stretches of the wall
that have been completely rebuilt. Jinshanling is far less crowded
than Badaling or the Shanhaiguan Great Wall, thus giving today's
climbers a hint of the isolation that must have been felt by
its ancient defenders.
Zhou Wanping is a photographer who lives at
the foot of the Jinshanling Great Wall. In the preface to his
published photograph album, My Home Town, he says: "At
the time I graduated from high school and went home, the Jinshanling
Great Wall was being repaired. Although sick, I participated
in the renovation process along with other villagers. This experience
fully brought home to me the hardship involved in the original
construction of the Great Wall. All the bricks, lime and water
needed for construction had to be carried to the site on the
backs of laborers."
Chinese imperial dynasties appeared,
prospered and died out through history. The Great Wall bears
witness to their vicissitudes, and demonstrates the Chinese
people's hard working spirit, and the splendid culture and history
of the Chinese civilization.
