Building the Ming Great Wall in the West
by mke1963
The Great Wall in the west of China looks very different from the better known stone-built wall in the east. Stone was not so easily available in the sandy, gravelly deserts or in the loess soils. The wall was built of adobe bricks where soil was available or of matted straw, reeds and straw where it wasn't.
These construction processes can still be seen in villages in the north of China, not for defense but for barns, farmyard walls and houses.
Using trays of wire mesh, shovelfuls of sand or soil are thrown throught the grid, creating a pile of fine sand or soil. This fine material was spread out on the ground on mats to bake in the sun and destroy any grass seeds which might sprout later and destroy the integrity of the wall. For the Great Wall, great efforts were made to ensure the final building material was precisely the right texture for creating solid bricks and it was not uncommon for silk, rice and hemp to be added to the sand or soil. The specific techniques for building up the wall differed from area to area, either as bricks or as continuous layers, but the final result needed to be tough enough to repel the arrows of warriors, and this was tested by military supervisors upon completion of parts of the wall.
The labour for bulding the wall came from nearby villages, sometimes they gave their labour voluntarily but more regularly they were forced to work upon pain of death; many died anyway, building what turned out largely to be an extravagant folly.
The wall did not, for the most part, look like the romantic wall seen in some areas north of Beijing, but was narrower and lower, with a narrow path along the top; and very little of it had any form of crenellations along the top. The most remarkable aspect of this is not that the wall is in such a poor state across much of China, but that it is so remarkably well preserved after more than 600 years of wind, rain and snow.
Background to the Wei Jin period - Part I
by mke1963
Immediately after the Han Dynasty, came the Wei Kingdom (220-280AD), one of the Three Kingdoms. The others were the Shu Han in the west and south-west and the Wu in the south. The Wei, the most pwerful, was started by Cao Pi who became the first Wei ruler, Wendi, and ruled over northern and north-western China from Luoyang and Chang'an. The Wei are now considered the legitimate successors to the Han Dynasty.
The founders of the Three Kingdoms are now best known as the leading characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with Cao Pi's father Cao Cao best remembered as a cruel tyrannical villain. It was a time of great instability across China, with local warlords and official generals running their fiefdoms the way they wanted. The last of the five Wei emperors, Yuandi, managed to conquer the Shu Han kingdom. It was a short-lived victory for Yuandi, as a couple of years later one of his generals, sima Quan, overthrew him in a palace coup. Sima Quan crowned himself Wudi, the founder of what became the western Jin kingdom. In 280, Wudi defeated the last of the three kingdoms, the Wu, and took the capital Nanjing. In Gansu, the Hexi Corridor was part of the Wei kingdom, with the Di tribes to the northeast and the Qiang people to the south in what is now Qinghai and Tibet. Wudi briefly reunited China, but the policy of giving each of his children a large area to rule proved the downfall of the united state. The population of the area under Wudi's control doubled in 15 years showing what could be achieved in a period of strong, peaceful government. But the siblings developed rivalries that quickly shattered the kingdom. In 317, Chang'an was sacked and the Chinese were forced south, while the Xiongnu took over the north, so forming the Northern Dynasties. In the Yangtze Basin and the south, the Han Chinese regained their strength - as the Southern Dynasties - slowly thanks to good administration rather than any wide leadership by emperors. The political vacuum created an opportunity for all kinds of outside influences to flourish, as often happens, and from 317 to 419 art, religion and the sciences developed strongly. It was a time of much strife with the Sixteen Kingdoms in the north constantly battling desert and mountain tribesmen, but by 383 the Toba or Northern Wei consolidated their power and became a significant threat to the Chinese Jin further south.
To the west of the Northern Wei, lay the Xia territories stretching from the Ordos down to the plains of the Wei river (confusingly!), while further west in most of what is now Gansu, lay the Later Liang Kingdom. The Liang Kingdoms had originally been founded in 320 by Zhang Mao, a Han, with its capital at Guzhong near Wuwei. Then the Later Liang was formed in 384 by Lu Gang, a Di tribesman. By 407, the Later Liang had fragmented into the southern, northern and western Liang. The western part was centred on Jiuquan (then Suzhou), the northern on Zhangye (Kanchow) and Wuwei, and the southern on Lanzhou. In 439, the Northern Wei emperor Tai Wu Di finally conquered the Western Liang, so reunifying the north of China.
The Community Restored Beacon Tower
by mke1963
The last beacon tower before the Overhanging Great Wall is an interesting example of comunity restoration - showing both good and bad in the management of cultura heritage management in China in recent years. In 2000, a local businessman was given permission to rebuild the small fortress to the south of the Shiguan Gorge, and local lbour was used to quickly rebuild the Great Wall along a short stretch nearby. This eradicated the remaining wall. The entrepreneur claims that he did it as a duty, but he also charges RMB6 to visit the area. Given that the Great Wall is state-protected national heritage, requiring persmission for any work to be done (and that work to be designed and executed by certified cultural heritage professionals) it would appear that the rules were not followed. Most of the original Great Wall has now disappeared under this idelaised but well-intentioned, 'rebuilding'.
This remarkable effort from local people as an exercise in recreating their heritage deserves credit. Sadly,though, the final part was the creation of the idealised and inaccurate crenellations and widened footpaths.
Jiayuguan Fortress - Part II
by mke1963
The great brick and stone fortress is not the end of all the fortifications. There is a protective moat around the entire complex, most easily visible from the platform of the outer western gate. The moat is 10 metres wide, with a slight lip that conceals it from a distance. This is the "hidden" Great Wall that would prevent a direct attack on the wall of the fortress, and could also conceal soldiers ready to counter-attack. Further earth fortifications, including pits to trip charging horses, can be clearly seen all around the western gate. Everything was designed to confuse the enemy and deflect any frontal attack. Much of these earthworks predate the fortress itself.
Despite appearances, the fortress at Jiayuguan is not square, but rectangular with the 166 metre western wall the longest, and the two side walls (north and south) sloped in to a shorter, 154 metre eastern wall. Rather than being for any specific military reason, it is likely that this represented the easiest way to construct the fortress on such uneven ground. The end result was a fortress with a total inner wall length of 640 metres; the outer wall runs for 733 metres.
In front of the inner city wall, is what is known as the Luo City Wall, which forms the protective western barrier wall, with the third gate - this is the outer gate and the gate that, in essence, led out of China. This wall is 190 metres long and is no less than 25 metres thick at the base. Each of the crenellations along the top was fitted with a small loophole to allow a rifle to be rested for accurte aiming as any enemy approached the base of the wall.
The rest of the outer city wall, much smaller but firmly protected by the earthworks further out, is only 3.8 metres high but still high enough to be a major deterrent. Remember that this wall was behind the Great Wall so didn't need to be so substantial - if the enemy had got to this point (they never did) then there would be real problems.
First Signal Tower
by mke1963
South-east of the Jiayguguan Fortress by some 8km is the First Signal Tower. From the lonely dusty road it looks like it is sitting on a flat plain where the Great Wall mysteriously ends, some kilometres short of the Qilianshan Mountains. Up close, the huge Taolaihe gorge appears, and the tower is seen to be sitting precariously right on the very edge with a 60 metre drop into the abyss from the very wall of the tower. Next to it, the Ming Great Wall, restored for the first 100 metres, comes to its very end.
The tower itself aways seems to surprise visitors, asking "Why is it solid?"
In fact for most of its length along the Wall, all watchtowers and signal towers were solid: a square cone of tamped earth,tapering towards the top, faced by adobe bricks with a parallel set of foot holes allowing access to the flat top. There never were any rooms inside the tower. The soldiers would have lived nearby in huts or tents or in the nearby villages. The basic principle of all towers was that from any one tower, two others had to be able to be seen even in poor weather. Here, the second and third signal towers can be seen before the main Jiayuguan fortress.
Unusually, in front (to the west) of the Wall, a huge ditch,now partly filled, can be seen. Known as the hidden Great Wall, this trench - or dry moat - was extra protection against attack.
Sadly a road and a power line cut through the wall here. To the south for the final few metres the Wall has been faithfuly recreated; to the north, stretching away across the gravel plain, it remains unrestored. The second photo shows the difference in height beween the two stretches.
Nearby is the well hidden visitor centre - it is underground and the entrance is 75 metres away by the parking area, to the east.
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Choo-choo
Our driver at the wheel
Outside entrance to tomb
Great Wall Museum