Residual or ancient
When we left Great Wall Fresh on Sunday, we found that some new roads not on our GPS maps had opened, leading to perhaps an alternate route home. Another reason we wanted to follow these roads where they lead was the succession of brown signs like this one.
Sometimes the English was translated as "residual" and other times as "ancient." Ancient Great Wall is something that really gets our attention. We were not aware of any such kind in the immediate area of Badaling. This was enough to divert us from our GPS-recommended path.
More after the jump.
When we've come across what we would call "Ancient Great Wall," it predates the Ming Dynasty. These places are usually not major tourist attractions because rather than twisting, ribbon-like and gorgeous along the ridges, these pieces of wall appear in short segments, nearly-tumbled-down old-guards. They aren't necessarily pretty for photographing, or even that interesting to climb. We thought we found where the signs lead, ancient wall that was not hard to miss at all.
On one side of the road, this snaked down the hillside.
On the other, this ran flat along a low ridge.
Tamped earth walls, with towers still discernible.
Does this spot still hold strategic importance to the military?
As fascinating a revelation this was to us, none of these mud walls were the Ancient/Residual Great Wall of Badaling. We continued to follow the arrows, even down some barely paved roads, when we came to a giant empty parking lot (!) surrounded by large, equally empty tourist-industry buildings. Just beyond the admission gate we could make out Great Wall, though whether it were more ancient than the rest of Badaling, I don't know.
This seemed to be a newly opened access point for the Badaling area, seemingly ready to accept the same number of tourists that crowd the original Badaling Great Wall. It will be worth a trip back, at least, to see what this location offers. Hopefully it is so new that we might get to enjoy it without the typically huge Great Wall crowds.
Sometimes the English was translated as "residual" and other times as "ancient." Ancient Great Wall is something that really gets our attention. We were not aware of any such kind in the immediate area of Badaling. This was enough to divert us from our GPS-recommended path.
More after the jump.
When we've come across what we would call "Ancient Great Wall," it predates the Ming Dynasty. These places are usually not major tourist attractions because rather than twisting, ribbon-like and gorgeous along the ridges, these pieces of wall appear in short segments, nearly-tumbled-down old-guards. They aren't necessarily pretty for photographing, or even that interesting to climb. We thought we found where the signs lead, ancient wall that was not hard to miss at all.
On one side of the road, this snaked down the hillside.
On the other, this ran flat along a low ridge.
Tamped earth walls, with towers still discernible.
Does this spot still hold strategic importance to the military?
As fascinating a revelation this was to us, none of these mud walls were the Ancient/Residual Great Wall of Badaling. We continued to follow the arrows, even down some barely paved roads, when we came to a giant empty parking lot (!) surrounded by large, equally empty tourist-industry buildings. Just beyond the admission gate we could make out Great Wall, though whether it were more ancient than the rest of Badaling, I don't know.This seemed to be a newly opened access point for the Badaling area, seemingly ready to accept the same number of tourists that crowd the original Badaling Great Wall. It will be worth a trip back, at least, to see what this location offers. Hopefully it is so new that we might get to enjoy it without the typically huge Great Wall crowds.
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