Jiumenkou Great Wall on Water

Photo of the week presents the Great Wall at Jiumenkou 九门口长城 in Liaoning Province. One of the only parts of the Great Wall to be have been built over a river.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Jiumenkou Great Wall on Water 九门口长城

Jiumenkou Great Wall on the water is a majestic sight, one of only a few parts of the Great Wall 长城 to have been  built across a river. It stands on the isolated border between the northern provinces of Liaoning 辽宁省 and Hebei 河北省 and close to the ancient garrison town of Shanhaiguan 山海关.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

For history buffs Jiumenkou Great Wall is a must. Don’t be put off by the tourist facilities that have been set up to accommodate Chinese tour groups. Hang around a while and any crowds will disappear. We recommend going for a walk up either side of the valley to explore some fascinating unrestored remnants of the wall and wait for the groups to go; you’ll soon have the place to yourself.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Here is the account of our visit taken from the dairy Margie Keeps:

On our previous day at Shanhaiguan we agreed with a lady taxi driver on 150 yuan for the two sites; the Great Wall at Jiumenkou, and the Great Wall at the edge of the sea.

Abandoned Watchtowers Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Jiumenkou the Great Wall on Water

Though supposedly only 15 kilometers from Shanhaiguan, it takes us almost 45 minutes to reach the site, along a narrow, winding and climbing road. Above us are the remote and abandoned watchtowers perched dramatically on the jagged mountains.

Abandoned Watchtowers Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

The Lonely Watchtowers

These lonely towers were once the most important defense positions of the Chinese empire. It was in this area where the marauding northern tribes would try to break through and enter the Middle Kingdom. And it is where the Manchus pored over the wall and into China to overthrow the Ming Dynasty and start the Qing Dynasty.

Abandoned Wall Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Now, the watchtowers stand abandoned, their purpose for existing rendered obsolete. However, for the visitor, they are a majestic sight.

Abandoned Watchtowers Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Jiumenkou Great Wall on Water. Arriving

When we get to Jiumenkou, we find a parking lot, visitors’ reception area and other bits and bobs. Of course, visiting a ‘bridge’ is never just that in China, of course they have developed the site.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

The Bridge and a Good Restoration Job

Well, this time I can only say that they have done a great job! The restored bridge section near the river is stunning and beautifully reflected in the clear water of the river.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

To the left, there is quite a long stretch of restored wall, winding its way up the forested hillside, up to two or three watchtowers, while on the right we can see a glorious unrestored section; its crumbling walls and fading watchtowers stretching as far as the eye can see.

Unrestored Great wall at Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

It`s really interesting to be able to see both versions, restored and un restored, at the same time.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

We get our tickets and climb on to the bridge first and walk across it: it’s a curious, angular or pointy structure, with interior courtyards and tunnels as well.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Apples Everywhere

Looking down from the wall, you can see straight into a small farmers’ village, dedicated almost exclusively to apple orchards all around the wall, with many of the apples individually wrapped in brown paper bags. Can you imagine how time consuming that must be?

There are ladies with baskets, hawking apples all over the place. The village of one story white-tile houses looks messy – as they all do- but not poor. The apples must sell well. And what a glorious location: imagine having the Great Wall running past your back garden …..

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

On the right at the far end the wall is blocked, so you can’t clamber up the unrestored bit. We therefore turn left and start climbing: it’s very steep at times, but the wall is broad And well maintained; unscary.

With each turn, or ascent of a watchtower, the views change and we can make out yet another watchtower, or stretch of wall in the distance! It really is a magnificent sight and we have gorgeous blue skies to go with it as well.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Climbing the Wall

Halfway-up, a peasant lady has actually set up an apple and refreshments stall in her orchard, right by the wall and she is doing a brisk trade, flogging apples and bottles of water over the wall.

Apple seller on Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

Closer to the top I notice a young couple stuffing pieces of handkerchief down the back of their little daughter’s shoes.

Everone is taking Photos Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

The poor thing obviously has blisters, so I offer them some plasters. They then take pictures with me. It’s all quite companionable.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

A Sign Tells People to Stop

Round about watchtower 3 the restored wall becomes less and less restored and eventually peters out. A sign tells people to stop, though a couple of Chinese men have ignored this and climbed up the mountain to very end of the wall anyway; leaving their rather annoyed companions to wait for them.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

A couple of beers

We head back and obtain a couple of beers from a little stand down below, which we drink on a shady bench, looking over the bridge and the crumbling wall.

It would be total bliss if it were not for the blaring music and tourists dressing up in emperor and empress costumes and/ or taking selfies. However, the setting is beautiful and nothing can spoil that!

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

As our driver had predicted we have spent over two hours here, having a very good look around, and are now ready to move on.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

There are other things here, such as an aviary with ‘rare foul’, but we don’t want to waste time trying to find it. It time for our next destination: Old Dragon Head, this is where the Great Wall once met the sea.

Jiumenkou Great Wall 九门口长城

From here move on to Xincheng in Liaoning Province

Zhending: China’s Unknown Temple Town

Zhengding 正定 / Hebei Province 河北省

China’s Unknown Temple Town

Zhengding 正定 was known as the town of ´nine buildings, four pagodas, eight great temples and 24 archways’.
Zhengding 正定 China's Unknown Temple Town
Pagoda in Zhending

Zhending: China’s Unknown Temple Town

Zhending: China’s Unknown Temple Town is just a few hours from Beijing. On our way to Beijing’s colossal West station, the taxi driver asked us where we were going. When I told him, “Shijiazhuang“, his reaction was one of bewilderment: “Why? You could go to Chengde.” “Been there”, I replied. “Beidaihe is also nice”, he continued. “Been there too”, I repeated. “Anywhere but Shijiazhuang“, the driver insisted, “meiyou kekan de dongxi 没有可看的东西” (there is nothing worth seeing), he sentenced. I extolled the virtues of the places we were going to see around Shijiazhuang, such as Zhengding or Cangyan Shan, hoping for a more favourable reaction. The driver just waved his hand dismissively, probably thinking stupid “laowai ” (foreigner), and just dropped the subject. It was too late anyway, since we had already bought the tickets.

Zhending  Temple studded Skyline
Zhending’s Temple studded Skyline

Welcome to Shijiazhuang and a Health Warning

Shijiazhuang  should come with a government health warning and when we alighted at the train station and inhaled the first whiff of some vile eggie sulphuric gas that seemed to be hanging over the city and then looked up at the yellowish sky, I did wonder whether I shouldn’t have taken the taxi driver’s advice.

Zhengding 正定 China's Unknown Temple Town
The Amazing Arms of Dafo Si

So what can you do if you find yourself In Shijiazhuang? The first thought that might come to mind is, just catch the next train out. Or you might also like to carry out a scientific experiment and try and see how much pollution your body is able to absorb, before you turn Day-Glo. Alternatively and less drastic, you could get out of the city and explore the interesting sites that lie nearby. And that’s what we did.

Zhengding 正定 China's Unknown Temple Town
Sleepy Zhengding

In fact, there are a couple of days of interesting sightseeing near Shijiazhuang and, following this brief introduction, it won’t come as a total surprise that you’ll have most of those sites almost to yourself.

Zhending: China’s Unknown Temple Town

The first place to head for is Zhengding, a dusty town whose old quarter is littered with pagodas, temples, mansions and remnants of ancient city walls. Zhengding’s skyline of temples and pagodas is a reminder of what old China must have looked like.

Taoist Soothsayers waiting for Customers
Taoist Soothsayers waiting for Customers

Getting there, it’s an easy 45 minutes to one hour on bus 201 from outside Shijiazhuang’s Train Station, all the way to Zhengding’s chaotic bus station. From there, a bus number one will take you to the enormous Dafo Si, or Big Buddha Temple, which is a fitting starting point for four to five hours of rigorous sightseeing.

Continue reading “Zhending: China’s Unknown Temple Town”

The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge

Zhaozhou Bridge / 赵州桥

Shijiazhuang

Hebei Province

The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge
The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge

The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge in Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province, about an hour from the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, is a stunning reminder of just how sophisticated Chinese engineering techniques were, more than one thousand four hundred years ago. That is the amount of time the Zhaozhou Bridge has stood spanning the Jiaohe River.

The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge
The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge

The bridge is the work of the engineer Li Chun who had to overcome numerous technical difficulties when designing and building it. First of all, it had to be high enough to avoid damage from frequent flooding, but at the same time it had to be flat enough to allow trade caravans and the imperial army to cross. Li Chun’s answer to this engineering dilemma was a segmental bridge, the world’s first, and Continue reading “The Extraordinary Zhaozhou Bridge”

Cangyan Shan Mystic China

Cangyan Shan 苍岩山 (Hebei Province, 2007, redone and updated)

Cangyan Shan Mystic China
Cangyan Shan Mystic China

Cangyan Shan Mystic China is not the easiest place to get to on a day trip from Shijiazhuang. We found out too late that the one and only daily bus (at least in late September) from Shijiazhuang to Cangyan Shan leaves at 8.00h.  As we had already missed it, it was a case of either not going, or hiring a taxi.

Tempple as seen in Couching Tiger Hidden Dragon

We spoke to a driver waiting outside a hotel and agreed on 300 Yuan for the whole day. It took us about 2’5 hours to reach the mountain, along a nightmarish motorway, full of overtaking lorries.
Amazing Bridge for Crouching Tiger Film
In spite of his protestations to the contrary, our driver had never been to Cangyan Shan before and kept stopping at other mountain temples on the way, hoping they were what we were looking for. As it turned out, this was a bit of an unexpected bonus, as one Buddhist nunnery we stopped at was very attractive. After giving us an exhaustive tour around, the friendly nuns were able to orientate the driver on how to get to the real Cangyang Shan, a mere 5 kilometres away.
Cangyan Shan Mystic China

The Hanging Palace

The highlight on the holy mountain of Cangyan Shan is the Hanging Palace, a double roofed hall, originally built during the Continue reading “Cangyan Shan Mystic China”