Simatai Great Wall Tourist Area
Unrestored Ming-dynasty wall clinging to a knife-edge ridge, with brick-stamped watchtowers and a narrow suspended footbridge.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Simatai Great Wall Tourist Area outside Beijing starts with a soldier's brick stamp underfoot, part of General Qi Jiguang's sixteenth-century accountability system for the crews who rebuilt this stretch of wall near the Gubeikou pass. It follows why this section has never once been rebuilt since, unlike the patched-up wall in most photographs, and traces the climb up the steep Heavenly Ladder toward the narrow Sky Bridge ahead. Look for the twin lotus carvings on the tower at the top.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
箭扣长城
Unrestored Ming dynasty wall section of crumbling stone ramparts snaking along a jagged mountain ridge.
Great Wall of China
Ming dynasty fortified ridge with densely spaced watchtowers and a rare triple-tower garrison house.
Great Wall, Jinshanling
Ming-era mountain rampart of sixty-seven watchtowers built by homesick soldiers from the south.
Ancient Great Wall Gubeikou
Unrestored Ming-dynasty wall section along a rugged ridge, site of fierce nineteen thirty-three fighting.
Huanghuacheng Great Wall
Ming-dynasty ramparts running straight into a reservoir, with towers rising from the water itself.
Great Wall of Badaling
Ming-era stone rampart along steep ridgelines, the first fortified stretch ever opened to tourists.