Shanhaiguan Things to Do

You want to escape the crowds at the First Pass under Heaven? It's not as hard as you think. Though legal areas of the wall that you can walk on are few, you can still head just a few hundred meters out of your way to interesting places where you'll be accompanied by only a few other places. A good place to do this is Linlu Tower. As soon as you leave the brick-covered tourist filled section of the wall directly around the Arrow Tower, you leave everyone behind; there's an amazing line where the people just stop and a section of grass-covered wall begins. Follow the wall for a few hundred meters over the flat landscape of the city of Shanhaiguan to Linlu Tower, a picturesque spot where you'll find few other people. The tower also has some history, though not quite as much as the Arrow Tower.

Walking up the Great Wall to the Arrow Tower is included in your 50 yuan admission fee, but entering and climbing the Tower is not; fortunately, it's only 2 yuan more. The tower provides a good view of the area, but that's not saying much; Shanhaiguan is an industrialized city, and most of what you'll be seeing are apartment complexes, factories, and cars. There is also a tiny museum at the top of the tower that includes exhibits on the First Pass Under Heaven's history, as well as a few older maps. An interesting place. Also, Chinese tourists love having their picture taken with the giant "First Pass Under Heaven" sign.

Okay, it may be pricey (about Y50 a person), and crowded, and commercial, and not really that beautiful, but the experience of walking the last section of the hall, where the wall protudes into the Bohai, is a must. Beware that on just about any given day, you'll be sharing the wall with thousands of mostly Chinese tourists. Be sure not to miss the museum to the side as you enter the fortress of the Old Dragon Head. The original wall here was destoryed by the Eight-Nation Allicane Force (something that translates into that out of Chinese) during the later years of the Qing Dynasty. You can do a lot of walking here and visit many interesting sights.

First Pass Under Heaven is the first major pass on the Great Wall of China, and it has a commanding presence on the area. The Tower of the pass rises high above everything, and is just totally immense. For a view of the industrial (and not very pretty) city of Shanhaiguan, you can climb to the top of the wall, and from there, you can enter the tower for an extra Y2. The top level of the tower is a sort of mini-museum, though it won't make any sense if you don't understand Mandarin. Don't expect to be here alone, though, because hundreds of other tourists will crowd this place with you. Entrance is a pricey Y40, but it includes the Great Wall Museum.

Southwest of Laolongtou - west of the beach and impossible to miss - is a high brick pedastel honoring the builders of Laolongtou with three large statues. I honestly would like to give some interesting historical information here, but I have to revert into my immature 20 year old mode - and say that this place makes a great place for some farcical poses. Take a look for yourself.

Located maybe a 100 meters south of the Laolongtou Fort, also on the beach, is a Temple to the Goddess of the Sea. I'll be honest: my memory fails me, but I think it -is- Godess, instead of God, and I think it's a Buddhist temple. Pardon my lack of expertise, but the inside looks just as every other non-Tibetan Buddhist temple in China, complete with moneyed Middle Clas s Chinese half-heartedly going through the motions with some sort of park employee directing them, but the temple redeems itself with a few features: first, the temple is actually on the sea itself, built on a pier like structure, so is unique in terms of location. Secondly, there's a fabulous pagoda on the back, which can be seen clearly in the picture I've attached (taken from Laolongtou) - it's a great place to relax offering great views of Laolongtou, the beach, and the sea, with a bonus sea breeze to spare you, if only for a moment, from the summer heat. Thirdly, murals in the temple depict interesting scenes of the deity of the Sea teaming up with other deities to save commonfolk from the ravages of the ocean.

Laolongtou is the fortress at the point where the Great Wall meets the sea. It's name means "Old Dragon Head" - apparently a spectacular gigantic dragon head dramatically marked the end of the Great Wall and overlooked the sea, but fair warning, it's gone and all that's there is a fortification, probably a reconstructed one. We came here before we went to Shanhaiguan's fabulous Great Wall Museum (which I describe in another tip), meaning our historical understanding of the place was not very high, but regardless, we enjoyed ourselves as the place offers spectacular fort-on-the-beach type views.

On the beach south of the fort, many activities await. For a better view of the fortress, from the sea, you can hire a speed boat for about 30 kuai per person. Having no money at the time, we weren't able to do this, but based on our other boat riding experiences in China, this is pretty expensive and one should be able to bargain it down a bit. Also featured on colorful, multilingual signs was the chance to ride some sort of low-altitude aircraft for some better views of the coast - we didn't do this either, but I imagine it's pretty expensive.

Not far from the city on the ocean are little fisher villages. I think they mainly go for lobsters. The boats looked very ancient. I wonder, whether they still use them today. I visited Shanhaiguan in 1993.