JiuGuKou Great Wall Hike
The team building event at the foot of the mountain
The unrepaired section of the wall was build in the Ming dynasty
JiuGuKou is located in HuaiRou district, some 80km north of Beijing. This is a state park which offers dense forest and Great Wall remains from the Ming dynasty. The HuaiBei ski resort is at the foot of the mountain. The resort is used as the out door playground for many company employees for team building events during the summer.
A hike from the park entrance to the Great wall takes about an hour. When I reached the top, I could notice the odd shape of a watch tower. Most of the watch towers along the Great wall are square shaped. This particular watch tower, however, is rectangular shaped. Why this watch tower is has this odd shape? After careful examination of the structure, I found the answer. This tower was building on a rather narrow strip of the mountain range. The foundation of the tower is a rectangular in shape. Thus the watch tower has to be built with the shape to fit the foundation.
This section of the wall is unrepaired. The remains of the wall stretched along the mountain ranges and disappeared into the horizon.
Walking on the unrepaired section of the Wall is a unforgettable experience
The rectangular shaped watch tower
The entrance to the JiuGuKou Great Wall park