Shanhaiguan Pass and Old Dragon's Head
Part Of The UNESCO World Heritage Site The Great Wall (1987); National 5A Tourist Attraction · Qinhuangdao, Hebei
The eastern end of the Ming Great Wall, where the fortifications come down out of the mountains, guard a narrow coastal corridor and finally run out into the Bohai Sea. The walled garrison town of Shanhaiguan was laid out in 1381 by the general Xu Da to hold the road between north China and Manchuria, and its great east gate, the First Pass Under Heaven, still carries an enormous plaque with those words in calligraphy more than five metres wide. From the gate tower the wall runs north to Jiaoshan, the first mountain the Great Wall climbs, and south to Old Dragon's Head, where a stone pier and the Chenghai Tower push into the surf - the wall's dramatic terminus, destroyed by foreign troops in 1900 and rebuilt in the 1980s. This was one of the most strategically important places in Chinese history: in 1644 the Ming general Wu Sangui opened the pass to Qing forces, letting the Manchus into China and ending the dynasty. Nearby stands the temple of Lady Meng Jiang, whose legendary tears are said to have brought down a stretch of the wall built by the First Emperor. Beaches at Beidaihe make the area a summer resort as well as a historical one.
First Pass Under Heaven, Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China
Roughly 7:00-18:00 in peak season and 7:30-17:00 off-season, with some sources listing 6:30-19:00 in midsummer; sites are ticketed separately (check).
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