Shanhaiguan - The Other End of The Great Wall

Around three months ago, I was at the Western end of "The Great Wall" (长城) at Jiayuguan (嘉峪关), <Read about Jiayuguan here.> now I have reached the Eastern end of the wall at Shanhaiguan (山海关). The town of Shanhaiguan (meaning 'The Pass between the Mountain and the Sea') was built during the Ming dynasty to defend the Eastern end of the Great Wall from the barbarians to the North. The main site in the old city is The First Pass Under Heaven (第一关下天) is a fortress built into the city walls as an entry point to the 'Middle Kingdom' (中国, Zhongguo), the literal translation of the Chinese name for China.

The old city dates back to 1381 but is currently under a bit of renovation, in fact, to be fair, it's like a war zone. The main north-south road which according to my guide book had the only places to eat, bike rental shops and internet access, currently has but a handful of buildings still standing, the rest on both sides is almost all rubble and a couple of building shells. Strangely there does not appear to be anything going on at all !! So I have no idea how long it has been like this, though it is probable there are no signs of work due to Spring Festival holiday. So when something happens there I don't know, but from some of the large posters scattered around some temporary walling built on some of the demolished roadsides, the aim is to rebuild Shanhaiguan into a"World class tourist Site", by the dubious sounding processes seen on three separate posters, described as "Setup a age-old city", "Build Orient Legend of World" and "Deduct Ancient Culture, Describe New Legend" Whether setting up an "age-old city" or "building a legend" are ethically correct I am not sure.


Left: Me at one of the fortress towers of the "First Pass Under Heaven".
Centre: This is the "First Pass under Heaven".
Right: Is this the best "Bank Of China" building anywhere?

Anyway, the fortress is impressive, you can walk a few hundred metres in both directions along part of the walls and see the full extent of the fortress and it's grounds. At the far end of the wall is "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), another fort, which has been overly re-constructed into a bit of a theme park, but has the impressive sight of the end of The Wall, coming to its end a few metres into the sea. There is also a temple, dedicated to the sea god, also on a pier a few metres out into the China Sea.


Left: A toilet building, one of the few left standing in Shanhaiguan's old town main street.
Centre: "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), the Eastern end of The Great Wall.
Right: Like I had done earlier, a few people got stuck a while in this maze.

The highlight in the area though is undoubtedly JiaoShan (角山) a section of the Great Wall a few kilometres north of the old city. I walked there from town and found you could walk most of the way along a grass covered mound about 4 metres high, which is a part of the original wall. As you approach the Jiaoshan site you can see the reconstructed section of the wall climbing impressively up the mountain ahead. At the site the path is blocked so I jump down off the wall, head to the entrance, pay and off onto the newly stoned and pretty steep climb up the mountain. The steps and slopes are at time very steep and you need a good pair of legs with you. You can climb the reconstructed section for around half an hour and then it is (nowadays) blocked. But if you continue up the footpath towards the temple at the top, follow the signs that faintly say 'Great Wall', (it seems there has been an attempt to wipe it out as currently they seem to want to restrict people from continuing along this part of the wall), you reach a section further up that is in its original form, untouched, crumbling, damaged, but undoubtedly original. Along this section you can clamber a further 30 minutes or so to the top of the mountain from where you have great views of mountains, a lake and the continuation of the wall with passes and towers weaving their way down and up another steep ascent in the distance.

Overall this is a great place to visit the Great Wall. There is the reconstructed part which gives a good impression of how it must have been originally, the crumbly original part with damaged towers, grass and plants growing around, a taste of the real wall and at this time of year at least, it was very quiet, just a few people climbing their way up the paths and nobody getting in your way. There is also a lovely peaceful Qixian temple at the top of JiaoShan near to the cable car stations which was a nice place to sit and rest for a while, while locals came and gave their thanks and offerings to the Buddhist shrines. Finally, a bonus is the lovely clean fresh air environment in the mountains as proclaimed on one sign, "The best oxygen area in negative oxygen ion" !


Left: The reconstructed wall at JiaoShan. (I made it as far as the second peak to the right)
Centre: The original, un-restored part, looking down from near the top.
Right: Archway at "The First Pass Under Heaven" fortress.

This leads me to a final note about Shanhaiguan, that is the abundance of beautifully worded, rather Confucianist sayings on signs scattered around their sites. Here are a few samples:

"You are beautiful when you are smiling,
You are good when you are sight-seeing,
You are terrific when you are behaving yourself."

"Civilize your language,
refine your behaviour."

"Be a spreader of civility,
be a protector of morality."

"This is our home and everyone should cherish it."

"Please don't chuck stones down the mountain"

"Take away the beauty of your memory,
but leave behind the beauty of your heart."

"Safety is mankind's best friend" (I always thought it was supposed to be a dog!)

"Politeness is your elegance,
kindness is your happiness,
humility is your virtue"

"Leave nothing behind except your footprints,
take nothing away except your pictures"

"A small step backward of yours,
a giant step forward of our civilization"