Review: Gubeikou Great Wall Review

[Bryan]

Summary

The Gubeikou area boasts several sections of Great Wall. The Panlongshan Great Wall heads to the east from Gubeikou. The Wohushan Great Wall leads to the west. Panlongshan and Wohushan will be reviewed separately; this review pertains to the Great Wall in the immediate Gubeikou area, to the south of and in between Wohushan and Panlongshan.

The central Gubeikou Great Wall is not usually visited by tourists. If you have arrived in Gubeikou to visit the other sections of the Great Wall near here, however, you may want to visit the central Gubeikou Great Wall as well.

Access

Starting from Gubeikou town you can walk southbound along the Jingcheng highway through the either tunnel and then turn to the right (west) and walk along a sidewalk until you reach an anti-Japanese defense monument and a nearby path on the right side (A on map) that heads up the mountain and above the tunnels. From this path you can reach the Wall (to the east) and towers (T on map, to the left) that are visible but not accessible from town. You can also access the Wall from point B on the map and follow in the opposite direction.

Path at point A on map


Path at point B on map

Condition

No rebuilding has been done on this section of the Great Wall since the Ming Dynasty, but some repairs and rebuilding have been done on some of the main towers. Many parts have been raided for local building materials leaving little of the Great Wall remaining.

Gubeikou hiking map (red: Great Wall, blue: paths)

Description

Start by climbing up to the Great Wall from just south of the Jingcheng Expressway tunnels as described in Access above. There are several large towers at the top of the ridge. Three of them have been rebuilt (T on map). One of the tallest of these towers has a steel stairway built into the south side allowing you to reach the inside of the tower – and an impressive view of the area. It’s possible to walk to the west and follow the string of towers and the barely-visible remnants of a Wall all the way down to the river, but other direction is much more interesting and rewarding. Walking along the wall to the west, you can continue for a reasonably long distance along a highly deteriorated but still prominent Wall before you reach the point where the Wall descends down to the road (B on map). This last downhill slope is too dangerous to climb safely, but there is a path to the right side which parallels the Wall and winds safely down to the road. On the opposite side of the road, I was unable to find a way up the steep hill to the Wall where it continues its way to an intersection with the south side of the Panlongshan Great Wall.

Monument at point A on map