Xiaohekou Great Wall, which was originally built from the year 1381, is named after the village Xiaohekou (small river mouth). It has 36 watch towers, where 12 of those have beautifully decorated stone carvings on the windows and doors. It was first discovered in July 2004, though dilapidated, retains all its ancient charms, and began attracting a growing arrival of visitors, including photographers, archaeologists, and artists.
In 2014, the Suizhong county's Cultural Relics Bureau, in their desire to attract more tourists, decided to restore the broken parts of the wall by simply pouring cement over it, causing a huge outcry and criticism from the public. Since then, Xiaohekou Great Wall has lost the beauty, the charisma, the allurement and the bewitchery, together with the awe, the reverence and the magic of the ancient great wall.
15/10/2016. 07:45 – 16:30. 8.7km. 16,215 steps. TA 723. ME756m.
Banchangyu-xigou (板厂峪西沟) – Pingdingyucun (平顶峪村) - Changchengcun (长城村)
We drove up to Banchangyu‘s west inner wall of the eye and were overwhelmed by the gorgeous morning vista of mist shrouded mountains, with the sun slowly breaking through, spotlighting the sprouting sturdy towers along the ridge – it was just absolutely breathtaking. The hike was real tough having to clamber and weave across and around cliff rocks, with towers on the mountain top and some wedged narrowly in between. This must be the most beautiful section of the Hebei wall, and it’s no wonder that there are many recreational hikers (mainly from Qinghuangdao and Tianjin) trekking through.
The end of the wall led us down to an orchard where a family was busy gathering the Chinese hawthorn apples – shanzha (山楂) for sale. They offered us some but the fresh shanzha is slightly sour and plain – they are ususally sold as sugar-coated tanghulu (糖葫芦), or made into the traditional haw flakes (shanzhanbing -山楂餅). We took our leave and proceeded to little quaint pretty Pingdingyucun village, rested, and had our drinks from the xiaomaipu - 小卖 铺 village shop, before continuing.
Wearily, we dragged ourselves up and down the wall over a small hill, followed by a hard tough long ascend of a mountain and reached the hamlet of Changchengcun. Inevitably we ended at the village’s xiaomaipu, where a group had gathered exchanging their anecdotes of the day. Just ahead was the quiet serene retreat, with many chalets, a large pond, hanging bridge and even a statue of a Mermaid. It’s off season and was desolated, but we eventually found the caretaker, who happily took us in for the night, with the wife serving up a simple dinner. It was a very good hard day's walk on the wall, and we hope to have a quick resumption the following day.
16/10/2016. 09:30 – 16:30. 6.5km. 11,825 steps. TA281m. ME 461m.
Banchangyu museum. Huanxiling (欢喜岭).
Dongjiakou (董家口) Damaoshan (大毛山)
Chengziyucun (城子峪村) - Changchengcun
Heavy rain overnight and continued morning drizzle meant no quick resumption to Chengziyu. Instead when the rain petered out, we went over to the Banchangyu museum, which has a great collection of Ming artifacts, including 2 ancient brick kilns. At the entrance to the Banchangyu scenic area, the supervisor enquired about our homeland, and playfully “demanded“ to see our country’s currency. I happened to have and “surrendered“ "geocashe" #5 to him. We were then given half entrance fare, (not what you think) but because we were only visiting the museum and not the whole scenic area.
In the museum, I came across an ancient Ming bow and that brought to mind the ingenious arrow “aim“ (3-lines) marks, by the windows, that we saw inside a few towers in Jielingkou. This 3-line mark was probably to help the novice soldiers aim at the approaching enemy, and might indicate aim points, eg. 1) approach from the valley 2) other side of the valley and 3) mid-way up the mountain. There is also a mount point on the window sill to help hold a crossbow steady when shooting the arrows.
We then drove to Huanxiling on the outer wall of the Dongjiakou great wall eye, and found that this wall section has deteriorated and not visibly evident anymore.
It was then off to the short Damaoshan wall section in the Dongjiakou scenic area, with its solid, strong, beautifully decorated towers. Being a Sunday, the whole place reverberated with squeals of laughter and shouts of delight from bus loads of weekend tourists, mainly from Tianjin – many clamouring for photoshots with the laowai. They not only came to hike the beautiful wall, but also for the famous roasted lamb and special home brewed baijiu, sold in the village.
We ended the day walking the wall from Chengziyucun back to Changchengcun, and had a delightful evening view of the surrounding mountains tinted in autumn colours.
17/10/2016. 06:20 – 14:00. 13.4km. 24,364 steps. TA 701m. ME 514m.
Changchengcun – Chengziyu – Dongjiakoucun
Xiaomaogou (小毛沟) – Xiaohekou (小河口)
The night before, we had a call from a Mr. Liu from Qinghai, who has been walking the Ming Great Wall from Jiayuguan, for 11 months in the last 3 years and would like to meet up the following day. He would sleep over in one of the towers on Damaoshan, and we shall rendevous at the base of the mountain.
We took a very early start, with a reflective sleepy moon still on the pond. It was quite an easy climb up from Chengziyu following the ancient Ming path and soon had the bright sun beating down. The view of the wall and impressive towers was just as spectacular towards Dongjiakoucun.
We arrived early and waited for old Liu Ming to come down from the Damaoshan tower where he had slept over last night. He is an incredible simple Chinese senior (a retired electrician) from Qinghai who had hiked 11 months (in the last 3 years) from Jiayuguan. Lao Liu lugged a 25kg pack, which includes his tent, hot water flask, food, clothings, rain gear, etc., and carries a wooden stick on one hand and a sickle on the other to cut and clear his way through the bushes along the trek. We marveled at how he manages to carry that load up and down the tricky craggy slopes and negotiate the dangerous steep cliffs.
After some exchanges of pleasantries, he joined us to Xiaomaogou (the boundary between Liaoning and Hebei), to trek the Zhuizishan Great Wall (锥子山长城) to Xiaohekou. Just as we reached Xiaomaogou, so did CH as well as a group of biosterious youngsters in uniform pink, who were already joyfully rushing up the wall. We off-loaded Lao Liu’s huge backpack, handed him a couple of bottles of water and together, joined the line of hikers on the wall. This is a beautiful stretch and I decided to leave behind "geocashe" #6 in a captivating tower just as we sighted the infamous cemented Xiahekou Great Wall section, branded by CNN as the World's worst restoration? China's Great Wall covered in cement - CNN.com
Xiaohekou Great Wall, which was originally built from the year 1381 with a total length of 8.9km, is named after the village “Xiaohekou” (small river mouth). It has 36 watch towers, where 12 of those have beautifully decorated stone carvings on the windows and doors. It was first discovered in July 2004, though dilapidated, retains all its ancient charms, and began attracting a growing arrival of visitors, including photographers, archaeologists, and artists.
Most of the villagers of Xiahekou, are the descendants of the army guarding the Great Wall, from Yiwu, a town in southern China, and the hometown of General Qi Jiguan, who was responsible for re-building and strengthening the great wall from Beijing to Shanhaiguan, in the 1550’s.
In 2014, the Suizhong county's Cultural Relics Bureau, in their desire to attract more tourists, decided to restore the broken parts of the wall by simply pouring cement over it, causing a huge outcry and criticism from the public. Today on our visit, we found the walkway’s slope super slippery and unwalkable, and the cement itself has fallen into disrepair with pockmarks all over. Many towers were also “restored“ badly. Indeed it is sad that the Xiaohekou Great Wall has lost the beauty, the charisma, the allurement and the bewitchery, together with the awe, the reverence and the magic of the ancient great wall.
Downcast, we sat a long while on the end of the wall before reluctantly descending and walked passively to the historical village. While looking for a xiaomaipu, we were directed to an eatery, we had our drinks and in no time, CH and the intended homestay proprietor showed up and quickly took us to the scenic Liaoning junction to view the enthralling sunset. There was already a gathering of watchers along the curved road, some had ventured up to the majestic tower along the Liaoning wall, and I was rivetted watching the sun slowly descending, enhancing the silhouette of the watch towers along the crescent of the mountain. We immediately knew this would be our resumption point, south towards Juimenkou and Shanhaiguan.
The Liaoning junction is at the end of the Zhuizishan Great Wall. “Zhuzishan” literally means “Awl shaped mountains”. This section of Great Wall is perched on the mountain in a shape of an awl, round and big at the base and narrow and steep on the top, which resembles a huge watch tower, a natural barrier.
The Zhuizishan Great Wall is at the confluence of three sections of the Great Wall. The Great Wall to the south of Zhuzishan leads to Jiumenkou Great Wall and Laolongtou (Old Dragon Head) at Shanhaiguan, the west leads to Beijing Badaling Great Wall and the east to Jinniudong Great Wall in Liaoning Province, all the way to Hushan Great Wall in Dandong, the border town of North Korea.
We were then taken to a homestay around Laojungou (老君沟) given excellent food, hot shower and a good bed for the night - it just turned out to be another great day.