Walking the Wall

Over the whole of its route in western Hebei, from the Shanxi border in the west to the border with Beijing municipality in the east, the northern branch of Great Wall is made of stone.

In some places, especially near important passes like Zhangjiakou, the stone wall can be an impressive barrier, five or six metres tall with mortar still intact.

Stone wall plunging into a canyon; the city of Zhangjiakou is visible in the distance

The Great Wall’s famous “Da hao he shan” gate is also the north entrance to Zhangjiakou

The section of wall just outside Zhangjiakou has been developed as a public park

But for the most part western Hebei’s stone walls are piles of rubble no more than three to four metres high. We suspect that this may always have been the case, at least in remote places, though we certainly don’t know that for fact.

It seemed to us that the mountain country of western Hebei was plenty high and rough on its own without wall, and that invasions via the peaks weren’t terribly likely anyway. A stone barrier designed more to slow progress rather than halt it entirely may well have been enough in this region. It was certainly enough to slow our progress.

Does this look like a good place to invade China?

Emma picking her way through the rocks on a steep descent

Despite the rough footing, the stone walls of western Hebei were among our favourite stretches of wall to date. The wall certainly stood out from the otherwise smooth and mostly open hills, but because the stones were quarried locally, it also fit into its surroundings nicely and changed form and colour as the local geology changed.

These pink stones were some of the prettiest we saw

The birches on the north side of the wall offered some nice, sheltered campsites