Badaling Great Wall

 Badaling Great Wall is located on the ridges of Jundu Mountains in Yanqing County, more than 60 kilometers northwest from Beijing. As its name implies it gives access to every direction. In the history, it is a defensive outpost of the Great Wall, and its function was to protect the Juyongguan Pass.

Badaling Great Wall was built in 1505, or the 18th year of the reign of Ming Emperor Hongzhi. The wall, built with huge stone slabs on theoutside, is 7.8 meters high on the average, some even reaches 14 meters. The base of the wall, built with large rectangular slab of granite stones, is about 6.5 meters wide on the average. The top floor of Badaling Great Wall is paved with square bricks which made the floor very orderly and smooth, and wide enough for five horses to gallop abreast and ten people to march shoulder by shoulder On both sides of the road, outer parapet and inner parapet were set. The outer parapet, or the rampart wall, is crenellated with merlons almost two meters high.

Click Here to view wonderful Badaling Great Wall Tour!

Buildings on Badaling Great Wall

 Built for the purpose of defense, there are holes on the top of Badaling Great Wall called watch-hole, and peepholes under the wall called embrasures. The inner parapet, which is 1 meter high, was used to prevent the horses and gharries from overturning from the mountains. The wall is narrow on the top and broad on the bottom forming a ladder-shaped structure. This made the wall stands firmly on the rise and fall ridges.

Along the wall, there are many beacon towers. Being the important structures of the massive defense system--Badaling Great Wall, they were used to transmit military message. In those pre-electricity days, probably fire and smoke were the most efficient ways for communication. One shot with one smoke meant the enemy was about 100 men; two shots with two smokes meant 500 men and three shots with three smokes meant more than 1,000 men. By this way, a message could be transmitted over more than five hundred kilometers within a few hours.

The fortress of Badaling Great Wall, with an elevation of 600 meters, was built in 1505. A gate-tower stands at either side of the fortress. The tablet inscribed with " the Outpost to Juyongguan Pass" is hung on the eastern gate and another one "the Lock on the Northern Gateway" on the western gate. A road links the two gates, and the place looks so thrilling that one man alone could keep 10,000 enemy soldiers at bay. It is believed in ancient times that Juyongguan Pass was the gateway to Beijing, while Badaling was the lock on this gate.

Join Badaling Great Wall Tour, explore the magnificence of the most famous world wonder!

Badaling Great Wall Tour

Badaling Great Wall is the most famous and best-preserved section of the Great Wall. The wall threads its way through a jumble of mountains like a giant dragon. It was also the earliest section to be open to the tourists among all the parts of the whole Great Wall. With its dangerous mountain slopes, splendid scenery, and distinctive four seasons, Badaling Great Wall is really worth visiting during Beijing tour.