Badaling Great Wall-opening hours/ticket prices/facts
Badaling is the first section of the Great Wall open to tourists. It is located in Yanqing County, Beijing, 70 kilometers/43 miles from the urban area. The Badaling Great Wall shows the original historical style of the Great Wall and looks a bit old. In ancient times, Badaling Great Wall was an important pass to protect Beijing City in the north, known as "the key to the north gate of Beijing".
Quick Facts About Badaling Great Wall
- Name in Chinese: Bādálǐng Chángchéng 八达岭长城
- Opening Hours: 6:30-16:30 (April-October); 7:30-16:00 (November-March)
- Ticket Price: 40 RMB/person (April-October), 35 RMB/person (November-March)
- Cable Car: 100 RMB/one-way, 140 RMB/round-trip
- Location: Yanqing District, Beijing
Why is it Called Badaling Great Wall
The name "Bada" is derived from the Chinese four-character 四通八达, which means that the transportation is convenient and can reach every place. Badaling connects Yanqing, Chicheng, Mongolia in the north, Zhangjiakou, Huailai, Xuanhua, and Datong in the west, Yongning, Sihai in the east, Changping and Beijing in the south, and it can go to cities in every direction.
How to Get to Badaling Great Wall
- By direct tourist bus: from Deshengmen bus station, take Bus No. 877 to Badaling Great Wall. It operates from 6:00 to 12:30 with a cost of 12 RMB.
- By S2 train: arrive at Huoying (霍营) metro station by metro line 8 or line 13 and then walk from Exit G4 to Huangtudian (黄土店) Railway Station. From Huangtudian, take the S2 train and get off at Badaling Railway Station with a cost of 8 yuan and takes about 1 hour. The train leaves every 83 minutes from Huangtudian from 7:46 to 21:04.
How to Reserve Badaling Great Wall Ticket
For tourists who plan to visit the Badaling section of the Great Wall, I suggest you book tickets in advance. Currently, the Great Wall does not have an official website, so you can only make reservations through the WeChat official account. However, the account does not have an English version. If you cannot read Chinese, you can ask a Chinese friend to help you.
Celebrities and Badaling Great Wall
Badaling Great Wall was the first section of the Great Wall to be opened to the Chinese public as a tourist site when it was inaugurated as such in 1957, though it received few visitors - even Chinese visitors - until the 1980s. Not surprisingly, this section of the Great Wall, lying at such a strategic position immediately north of the capital city, has been well maintained throughout the ages.
It was here that President Nixon, in 1972, as the guest of China's Vice Premier, Li Xiannian, visited the Great Wall as part of Nixon's historic trip to China, on the heels of the thaw in relations between China and the West. It was orchestrated by President Nixon's National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger.
Numerous other international dignitaries visited the Badaling Great Wall in the years following China's opening under the wise leadership of Deng Xiaoping, including Britain's leader at the time, Margaret Thatcher. The Great Wall Museum at Badaling has a photo gallery showing the many national and international dignitaries who took up Chairman Mao's challenge.
Note that China's other national hero of a generation earlier, Mr. Sun Yat-sen - who was instrumental in replacing China's last Imperial dynasty, the Qing (CE 1644-1911) Dynasty, with the Republic of China (1912-1949) - once paid an official visit to Badaling Great Wall. It was long before Chairman Mao made his famous challenge. A stele inscribed with Chairman Mao's "manhood challenge" stands at the entrance to the Badaling Great Wall.
In addition, the nearby Great Wall Panoramic Amphitheater shows a short, highly recommended 15-minute film that previews the highlights of the Badaling Great Wall which is a must-see for those who wish to know what to look for before they begin their tour of the Badaling Great Wall.
Strategic Significance of the Badaling Great Wall
Badaling's strategic significance has been recognized down through the ages. On one of his campaigns to the northeastern part of the empire, Emperor Shi Huang Di, aka Emperor Qin of the Qin Dynasty (BCE 221-207), China's first Imperial dynasty, en route from his capital, Xi'an (formerly known as Chang'an), passed through Badaling. In ancient times, Badaling served as the gateway to nearby Juyong Pass.
During the Ming Dynasty, Badaling is the nexus where numerous roads meet. Therefore, from Badaling's vantage point, one can go in any direction. Indeed, the name Badaling itself means "a hill from whence one can go in 8 directions" ("8 directions" being an ancient Chinese metaphor for "all directions and places").
As an old Chinese proverb regarding the strategic significance of Badaling goes, "If but one man guards the pass, ten thousand of the enemy cannot get through it." Indeed, China's turbulent history seems to have borne out the truth of this ancient proverb.
Badaling’s Reconstruction History
Badaling was first constructed during the Warring States (BCE 475-221) Period of the Eastern Zhou (BCE 770-221) Dynasty. It was cobbled together from whatever bits of material were available locally, from stones to tree trunks to stamped earth to sun-dried mud bricks held together with dried grass to defend against marauding horsemen from the north, such as the Jürchens (who later changed their name to the Manchus before seizing power and forming the Qing Dynasty) and the Mongols, and many others before them, such as the Xiongnu and possibly the Huns.
Naturally, a wall so primitive required frequent repairs to provide an adequate defense of the motherland. When the Ming Dynasty emperors moved their capital from Nanjing in present-day Jiangsu Province to Beijing, one of the priorities was to remake the Great Wall. This was an immense project that was eventually put under the supervision of General Qi Jiguang, as indicated above.
The first Ming emperor to undertake the refortification of the Badaling Great Wall was the Hongzhi Emperor, Emperor Xiaozong, who reigned from 1487 to 1505. The next Ming emperor to devote his attention to the refortification of the Badaling Great Wall was the Jiajing Emperor, Emperor Shizong, who reigned from 1521 to 1566.
But it was during the reign of the Wanli Emperor, who reigned from 1572 to 1620, that a complete restoration of the Great Wall was undertaken. It extended from the coastal site of Shanhai Pass near the Gulf of Bohai to Juyong Pass north of Beijing, near the border of an earlier Mongolian Empire which today corresponds to the border area between Hebei Province and Inner Mongolia.
The latest "fortification" (restoration) of the Badaling Great Wall was completed in 1957, just before its opening, and represents a modest restoration, as indicated above, of the Ming Dynasty refortification. This was surely one of the factors behind UNESCO's 1988 decision to recognize the Badaling Great Wall as a World Cultural Heritage Site. It is a well-preserved Ming Dynasty monument that represents a direct link to China's Imperial past.
Interesting Facts about the Badaling Great Wall
- Badaling Great Wall attracts the most tourists among all the Great Walls in Beijing because it is close to the city center and is connected to highways, taking only one hour to drive there.
- The Great Wall is an ancient defensive project in China. When enemies were spotted, fire or smoke was used as a signal, transmitted to other areas through the Great Wall.
- The Great Wall has three parts: the wall, watchtowers, and beacon towers. The wall is 7.8 meters high and 6 meters wide; the highest part can reach 15 meters.
Highlights of the Badaling Great Wall
Pass City
The Badaling section of the Great Wall consists of two-pass cities. One is the eastern pass city, Juyong Outer Town formerly simply called Guan "Pass", which is an important outpost of the Juyong Pass. The other is the western pass city - Bei Men Suo Yao, or the "The Lock and Key of the Northern Gate", a name that refers to the generals who defended northern China.
Turnoff City
Near present-day Badaling Railway Station stands a huge, magnificent castle. It was formerly a turnoff point from the main route, hence the name - the former commanding officer of the famous "Lock and Key of the Northern Gate" pass city outpost. In ancient times, there were three senior guards stationed here, supported by 800 regular soldiers.
Ancient Cannon
Displayed near the entrance to the Badaling Great Wall are five pieces of ancient iron cannons, made in 1638 and representing the most advanced heavy weaponry of the Ming Dynasty. The largest among the five weapons is a 2.85-meter-long, 105 mm caliber cannon, with a huge cache of 105 mm caliber cannon shots.
Ramparts
Badaling is generally considered the most archetypical and imposing portion of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. The outer part of the rampart wall is made of large, rectangular rampart bricks, as is the parapet or walking surface. The outer (facing the enemy) rampart walls are between 1.7 and 2.0 meters in height and crenelated. The entire rampart sits so snugly atop the supporting wall that not even a blade of grass can grow in the space that separates the two.
This amazing feat, combined with the wall's ingenious water discharge system, reflects the enviable talent of ancient Chinese architects and engineers.
City Dais
The city dais, aka wall dais, is a platform structure with battlements on its top. It served a dual purpose: as a watchtower and as a platform from which to defend the wall during enemy attacks. There is a wall dais for every 500 meters of wall, again emphasizing the strategic importance of the Badaling stretch of the Great Wall. The platform on top of Badaling's Pass City gate is a typical city dais.
Watch Dias
Also called a watchtower, the watch dais is usually a rectangular, two-storeyed structure built as an integral part of the rampart. The ground-level storey of a watchtower served both as a depot for weapons and as an active defensive structure.
It has numerous small portholes through which arrows can be shot or spears jabbed at would-be scalers of the wall. The upper storey contains battlements, peepholes, and yet more portholes for archers, as well as a set of beacon towers (see the separate description of beacon towers farther below) for sending out warnings. Located at regular intervals, watchtowers were a very important defensive component of the Great Wall.
War Dais
War daises were blockhouse-like, multiple-storeyed structures built at regular intervals along the Great Wall. A war dais was also a depot for ammunition and food. According to historical records, hundreds of war daises (as well as hundreds of watch dais) were erected between Shanhai Pass and Badaling, under the supervision of General Qi Jiguang.
In all, there are over 1200 watch daises and war daises erected between Shanhai Pass and Juyong Pass, which we now know included Badaling, though the initial plan was to construct 3000.
When a battle would break out, the soldiers could take advantage of the elevated position of the war dais to shoot arrows, fire cannons, cast large rocks, etc., down upon the attackers. A war dais was typically manned by 60 soldiers with enough food, drink, and gunpowder to survive a month-long siege.
Beacon Tower
Each set of beacon towers (a beacon tower is a large, relatively squat, slightly conical, silo-like affair. The shape is similar to the modified-hourglass-shaped "smokestacks" of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the U.S., but with the top half removed.
It was an integral part of a war dias (blockhouse), where the beacon towers were always placed at the commanding point of the local terrain, otherwise, their flame could not be seen. The set of beacon towers was a crucial element of the Great Wall's defensive works, with a war dais and its set of beacon towers situated every 5 to 10 li (1 li = ½ kilometers).
Each blockhouse housed a set of 5 beacon towers. The greater the size of the attacking force, the greater the number of beacon towers that would be lit. In addition, cannons, which could immediately capture the attention of the crews of the neighboring war diases, were fired together with the lighting of beacon towers.
A signal from one set of beacon towers would set off replicative signals by neighboring beacon towers, and, depending on the magnitude of the threat conveyed by the signal, the signal would either be confined locally or spread far. By day, beacon towers emitted only smoke, while by night, they produced flames.
The beacon tower had to be large enough to produce a lot of smoke or flame, as the case may be, hence its enormous size. This highly effective early warning system had been in use in China ever since the Zhou (BCE 1027 - CE 221) Dynasty, another tribute to age-old Chinese ingenuity.
Water Pass Great Wall at Badaling
Water Pass Great Wall is the most substantial section of the Badaling Great Wall. Located on the steep mountains and sheer cliffs, the Water Pass Great Wall has a strategic geographical location, which functioned as a magnificent military defensive project in ancient China.
Water was used to resist the enemy's attack and a water pass took shape. Thus, the Great Wall was named Water Pass. The Section is 6.8 kilometers long and is famous for its peculiarity, steepness, ruggedness, and stoutness.
It’s suitable for visiting the Water Pass Great Wall all year round, as the scenery varies with seasons. You can appreciate a sea of mountain flowers in full bloom in spring, verdant trees in summer, red autumn leaves all over mountains in autumn, and a spectacular snow landscape in winter.