Pánlóng Shān Great Wall 蟠龙山长城
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond
Although the entrance is advertised on big hoardings and a formal ticket is issued, it’s not clear that this site is legally open. It is very attractive, however, since local farmers have made a neat path up to the Wall and then performed minimalist maintenance to keep this section intact in a manner called bǔxiū (补修, patched) rather than zhuāngxiū (装修, renovated), which tends to mean effectively rebuilding sections from the ground up, as is common elsewhere.
The claim is that there’s 5km of open Wall here, including 40 structures, one of which is the ‘24-eye tower’ visible to your left as you mount the Wall (indeed, one fork in the path takes you there. A further section called Wòhǔ Shān (卧虎山, Crouching Tiger Mountain — yes, the same characters as the film) in that direction is also open. But you can walk to Jīn Shān Lǐng by turning right. This walk is much less well-known and less travelled than the one from Jīn Shān Lǐng to Sīmǎtái, although also a little more complicated, as it involves descending to pass through tiny fields with farmers at work in order to avoid a large military base before remounting. This may be seen to add to the attraction, however.
Beyond the Gǔ Běi Kǒu tunnel, or on the outside of the Wall as you walk along it, you are almost in Tartary, or Manchuria, an area the Chinese were prevented from entering during most of Qīng rule, and much of which, while part of the Qīng empire, became Chinese territory only after the 1912 abdication. It was the Manchu homeland to which the emperor might reasonably have been expected to return to rule.
Mounting the Wall here you are following 18th-century British envoy Lord Macartney:
These mountains, gradually approaching, almost close the passage, leaving only a narrow defile or ravine through which there is barely room for the road, and a small rivulet that runs in the bottom. Across the road is built a tower of eighteen feet wide (with the gate in the centre) and forty-five feet long. This pass had been formerly quite closed by the side walls of the tower continuing up the hills both on the east and west, but on the latter it was now open, for both the arch through which room had been left for the stream to flow and the wall raised upon the arch have been destroyed and there now appears a complete disruption of the whole from top to bottom. Through the lower gate we proceeded on for a considerable way, I suppose near 1,000 yards, through a large extent of ground with several houses built upon it enclosed by high walls connected with the great one, till we came to another gate and from thence to the town of Ku-pei-k’ou which is very populous and strongly enclosed by two or three rows of walls, which at a few miles distance converge together and unite with the main one. After breakfast we set out from Ku-pei-k’ou in order to visit this celebrated wall which we had heard such wonders of, and after our passing through the outermost gate of the Tartar side, we began our peregrination on foot, there being no other method of approach. In less than half an hour, after travelling over very rough ground, we at last arrived at a breach in the wall, by which we ascended to the top of it…
Lord Macartney, An Embassy to China, London, 1797
The pass here fell easily to the Mongol invasion of 1211, the losers being the Jurchen Tartar Jīn dynasty (金, 1115–1234) who had themselves defeated the Khitan Mongol Liáo dynasty (辽, 907–1125), so it was perhaps unwise for the Jīn to have left a Khitan Mongol as guard commander. The Wall was only as strong as its garrison.
Upon mounting the Wall, you can see it looping away to the right with a clear path through grasses on the now largely brick-free top, the odd bit of concrete keeping things together. It winds sinuously in wonderfully Gothic neglect from watchtower to watchtower, some of which can be walked through, the odd lightning conductor further evidence of local care, although other towers have collapsed.
At some points little more than the earthen core of the Wall remains, but at other times it becomes quite broad, with balustrades still intact and loopholes for firing down still in place. The only other sign of life may be a goatherd and his charges.
Eventually (about 1½ hours at a modest pace) the Wall turns sharply right at a tower that you cannot enter and so must go round it on the right (inner) side. The Wall drops steeply downhill to another tower with its entrance clearly boarded up, so instead of descending you cross the top of the Wall and take the dirt track down the other (outer) side of the tower. If instead you come downhill to a dead end with a sign and a fence coming up on the right-hand side, then below is a military camp it would be very unwise to enter — you need instead to go back uphill to the watchtower and scramble down the path described.
The path leads through long grasses and assorted shrubs, giving you a Manchu’s-eye view of the Wall above it, but is well-worn and occasionally marked with ribbon by earlier trekkers. After about ten minutes there’s a thatched-roof cottage with an overgrown garden, its kàng (炕, heated brick bed) still visible through the window.
Pocket-handkerchief-sized fields still in use are surrounded by dry-stone walls. After about 20 minutes the path reaches a section of the Wall that plunges steeply with a number of defensive interior walls clearly visible. Optionally turn right to look closer, but the red characters on the white signboard at the Wall tell you this is still a military area, so do not remount here but return to the main path and carry on.
Past a large round stone-walled pond and more fields, stay on the path and nod politely to farmers. Although at this point the Wall disappears, don’t worry. Keep looking to the right and backwards where you see right turns, until you see a watchtower up one of them more or less back over your right shoulder. If after about half an hour you pass a rather richer looking farmhouse on the left you need to double back a short distance to look for the turning described. If you go even further on you’ll reach a T-junction, in which case you should turn round, pass the farmhouse on your right, and the turning you want is to the left shortly afterwards.
This richer farmhouse is incidentally the dwelling of one of the insistent saleswomen from the Jīn Shān Lǐng to Sīmǎtái route, and is no doubt partly the product of cash extracted from tourists, as are the motorbikes parked outside.
If you encounter any of these women here they will try to persuade you that you can get nowhere without their help, that there are too many forks in the road (chāzi lùkǒu, 查字路口), and that it’s far too late to get to Jīn Shān Lǐng — but for ¥150 they’ll take you on a motorbike. That they can’t be bothered to go for much less is a further indication of the rich pickings they make. But there’s no need for them.
Follow the path mentioned through the fields and the Wall will appear again on the right and then cross almost directly in front of you in a pretty ruinous state. The path rises slightly and passes fields, and at the first fork take the left option, which involves a slight scramble up a bank, where the path becomes narrow and less well defined.
It climbs towards, but doesn’t reach, the ruins of a beacon tower (烽火塔, fēnghuǒ tǎ), the Wall clearly visible on higher hills to the right. Eventually the Wall plunges down a small valley and has a breach with some new brick. The path will swing towards higher ruinous towers about four towers further on, paralleling the Wall en route and giving lovely views, including one of the top of the Wall, entirely overgrown and with no footpath. At one point the path briefly cuts across a rock face, but this is not tricky.
The next fork is at a saddle, and it’s obvious you should swing right towards the Wall and not left in the general direction of an aerial mast, and climb up towards a tower that looks particularly ill-supported and as though it may not stand much longer.
When the Wall is reached it will be found that the military has kindly put up a notice about accommodation 550m back downhill again (t 133 1328 3209 for details). Turn left and follow the path along the base of the Wall. It’s the perfect invaders’ view, with close-ups of crumbling brick patchworked with lichens in greens, ochres, and greys. But it’s so quiet that a plump tawny fox or other wildlife may be spotted. Sometimes the path has been tidily cut into steps; at other places there are handy tree roots for drops and climbs, and sometimes you shuffle along the stone lip of the base of the Wall.
Eventually the Wall can be seen zig-zagging impressively to and fro across the horizon ahead at the Jīn Shān Lǐng section, reached when you find broken floodlights. Follow the path as it drops down through saplings and small trees and then turns right through a gap in the Wall and right again along the inside face, up a small jumble of masonry to another hole where it re-enters the Wall and turns right again to climb back on to it. This is about 1½ hours from where you originally descended.
There are great sweeping views of the Wall leaping about and freestanding beacon towers. After climbing to the next tower (which has a wheelie bin inside) turn around for fabulous views back downwards. Shortly afterwards you may encounter a man brandishing identification, who may demand you buy a Jīn Shān Lǐng ticket. Apparently he pays ¥50,000 a year for the right to catch people entering this way and sell them tickets, so if you’ve acquired one in advance he won’t be impressed and will insist you buy his anyway. This is the official ticket, and at the right price; so pay up.
You now travel steeply down through interior defensive walls, but by the next tower everything is zhuāngxiūle (rebuilt nearly from scratch) to perfection. There are often numerous photographers with tripods wanting to capture the afternoon light on the Wall back in the direction from which you’ve come.
Finally, at a Y-shaped section, descend at the marked exit on the next tower unless continuing to Sīmǎtái (see Jīn Shān Lǐng), about 5½ hours altogether after setting off. The car park immediately below is only for the privileged and there’s a further ten-minute walk to the entrance. You can also spend the night here and carry on to Sīmǎtái next day.
▶ Pánlóng Shān Cháng Chéng, at Gǔ Běi Kǒu Village, Mìyún County, about 130km NE of the city centre, gps 40º 40.937’ N, 117º 09.523’ E, t 8105 1166, 7am–5pm. ¥25. b Take a long-distance bus for Chéngdé
(承德) from Liù Lǐ Qiáo bus station and alight at 古北口. taxi Entrance on right immediately before Gǔ Běi Kǒu tunnel mouth on G101.
The ticket office is at the turning to the site, and it’s a further 3.2km to the point at which you mount the Wall, past a mixture of old farmhouses and holiday cottages, up a left fork marked 蟠龙山长城 (Pánlóng Shān Chángchéng). There’s a further ticket check en route. From the car park a path swings left in front of a house and rises to become stairs up to the Wall itself.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Jīn Shān Lǐng Great Wall
Previously: Sīmǎtái Great Wall
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
