Great Wall

Yulin

The Yulin Wall, which is some seven kilometers long, was built from tamped earth with an outer brick covering. The city was enclosed within a rectangle with five gates of which only the Eastern and Southern gates survive to this day. On our visit to the old city walls we found the Eastern Gate. The outer brick layer had fallen away and the inner core of tamped earth was exposed. It reminded us of the beacon towers in Dunghuang, where the local people had removed bricks to built their houses. It was good to learn that the Yulin city government has taken steps to ensure material from the Wall is not plundered in future. This action reflects the policy of China's central government and its program of protection for ancient sites and relics that has spread now to these more remote locations. Local people told us that the ancient city had not seen too many changes and many old buildings and fortifications can still be seen.

The ruins of beacon towers scattered along the Wall, not far from the city stand as silent witnesses to the continuity of the fortifications in the past. Of these, the most famous is Zhen Bei Tai, five kilometers north of Yulin. We found you can reach this beacon tower by taking a ten-minute taxi ride for a fare of CNY 10. We also found that the sections of the Wall further to the northeast alongside the new road being constructed between Yulin and Shenmu had fallen victim to the vagaries of the weather. Our only clue to the line of the Wall here was the assortment of beacon towers sited on the hilltops.

We decided to continue our trip north eastwards along the Yulin-Shenmu Road where we found ruins of beacon towers that had been partly buried in sand drifting in the wind. After continuing our exploration for several hours we came upon two more fortress sites Chang Le Bu (Chang Le Castle) and Jian An Bu (Jian An Castle) and a small village school.

Chang Le Bu (Chang Le castle)

This Ming castle dates from 1474 and had 37 integral beacon towers. The walls have been greatly damaged by the weather and the tamped earth interior is exposed. We could see how the rectangular walls once surrounded the village, where the southern section is in better condition than the rest. The east gate is still visible with its weng-cheng, a small enclosure on its outer-side for protection. The west gate had been buried under the sand for very many years and we were fortunate at the time of our visit to be able to take our photograph following recent excavation.

Shi Ba Dun (Eighteen Frustum Towers)

Shi Ba Dun was so named, as there was a formation of eighteen beacon towers of a particular design here. The Chinese word 'dun' means 'frustum' a geometrical term which when applied to a building means that it is rather like a pyramid without an apex or point.

Jian An Bu (Jian An castle)   Built by the Ming in 1474, this was an important castle on the Great Wall. It had gates to the east, north and south with enclosing walls. Now only the east and south gates remain.

In contrast to the age old beacon towers and ancient wonders of fortification, a small school named Duan Qiao (Broken Bridge) created quite an impression on us. This was very much a typical village school where a single teacher was responsible for a total of fourteen students of various ages.