Other sections of the Greatwall
The Hushan Great Wall
The Hushan Great Wall is located on the bank of Yalu River, east of Dandong in Liaoning Province, with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the opposite side of the river. The Hushan Great Wall was first built in 1469, with a total length of about 1000 kilometers and the highest point is 146.3 meters above sea level. The ruins which have been found and fixed are over six hundred meters. The Hushan Great Wall was built by the then rulers of the Ming Dynasty as a military fortress to block the Manchus invasion. In the late Ming Dynasty, the Hushan Great Wall had already lost the significance of its military defense after the Manchu troops forced its way into the Shanhaiguan pass. Since then it had been deserted.
Situated at the foot of a hill and beside a stream, the Hushan Great Wall is winding up and down along the mountain terrain, running towards the north. Here once has had a complete defense facilities including crenels, horse paths, watchtowers and embrasure-watchtowers equipped with all kinds of defense facilities. However, over a long time span, now there is only a small part of it well preserved and most of the surface buildings have already collapsed or damaged.
The Jiumenkou Great Wall
The Jiumenkou Great Wall is situated in Suizhong County, in Liaoning Province, 15 kilometers north of Shanhaiguan. The Jiumenkou Great Wall was first built in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and then expanded in the early Ming Dynasty, having a total length of 1704 meters. This section is located on the Yanshan Mountain extensions, built in a narrow valley between two mountains, connecting the Shanhaiguan pass in the south, with nine huge arch watergates standing rock-firm on the one-hundred-meter wide Jiujing river, meandering to north up and down along the mountain terrain. Due to its perilous geographical position, the Jiumenkou Great Wall was an important military pass of the Ming Great Wall which had always been contested by military strategists, known as the “Number One Pass Under Heaven” or the “First Pass of Jingdong”.
According to legend, when the Jiumenkou Great Wall was built, in order to protect it from flood, they paved around the piers and surface of the upper and lower reaches of the wall with giant rectangular granites. The paved area was approximately 7000 square meters and more than 12,000 pieces of rectangular rocks had been used. Viewed from a far distance the paved surface seems like a huge stone plate, known as “a Piece of Single Slab Stone”.
The defense installations were intensive on the Jiumenkou Great Wall. It is the only section of the “Ten-Thousand-li Great Wall” built on the water. The special geological structure and majestic momentum was once described in lines: the wall is crossing on the water while the water is flowing under the wall.
The Datong Great Wall
Located in Datong City, Shanxi Province, The Datong Great Wall was built during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, about 335 kms long. Running from Zhenkoutai (northeast of Pianguan, today’s Shanxi Province) in the east, to Yajiaoshan (northeast of Pianguan, today’s Shanxi Province) in the west, the geographic position of the Datong Great Wall is very important as it had always been contested by the strategists f the past dynasties. It was one of the “Nine Strategically Important Frontier Posts” in the Ming Dynasty, known as the “Key of the North”.
The northern part of the Datong Great Wall had built five frontier walls, called “Five Frontier Fortresses”. The five fortresses were all rammed with loess, and the bricks had not been used to cover the ramparts, only those platforms closer to the important sections of the fortresses covered by bricks. The color of the walls and mountains looked similar as a whole, displaying an entirely different style. Though built with rammed loess, the ramparts, more than 5 meters high, were firm and sturdy and also well preserved. It was the more prominent section of the Ming Great Wall in Datong.