Cultural Heritage / Trip Ideas
The best-preserved part of the Han Great Wall can be found five kilometers west of Yumenguan, and 90 kilometers to the north west of the city of Dunhuang.
The best-preserved part of the Han Great Wall can be found five kilometers west of Yumenguan, and 90 kilometers to the north west of the city of Dunhuang.
Besides the religious murals in Mogao Cave, Dunhuang in northwest China’s Gansu Province is home to a secular monument: part of the Great Wall that kept the ferocious Huns at bay and guarded the famous Silk Road. Unlike the vivid wall paintings, the drab ruins of those ancient defense structures, built more than 2,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220), are well weathered in a harsh, wind-swept region that saw constant warfare.
The best-preserved part of the Han Great Wall can be found five kilometers west of Yumenguan, and 90 kilometers to the north west of the city of Dunhuang. It is only 402 meters long, while the total length of the Han Great Wall exceeds 10,000 kilometers.
In contrast to parts of the Great Wall built with stone, such as the one in Badaling, Beijing, the Han Great Wall was constructed mostly using sand, dirt, and plants like reeds, which were abundant in the area. Another feature that may not bode well for the Han Great Wall is that large stretches of it were in flat, open grasslands, rather than hilly terrains that are easier to defend.
While the Han Great Wall may not look quite impregnable, its very existence deterred foreign invasions thanks to its dense beacon towers – big ones at intervals of 5 kilometers and small ones spaced at half that distance. Most of the remaining towers are at least seven meters tall.
A humble predecessor to the better known Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), the Han Great Wall, standing desolate in an acrid, sandy region, is a far cry from the more photogenic structures under the same name. Yet the crumbled hints of an ambitious project tell, through the ages, the full story of the Great Wall.
Time to visit: May to October
Entry: 40 yuan/person
Opening Hours: 8:00-19:00
Best time to visit: May to October