Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Jiayuguan Pass/Great Wall

I think everyone is familiar with The Great Wall (one of the seven wonders in the world) which needs no further intro. The mostly visited great wall area would be the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing. :)
But not many knows regarding the Jiayuguan Pass or Jiayuguan Great Wall (嘉峪关) in Gansu Province.
Taken at the Jiayuguan Museum ~ the plan of the miniature Jiayuguan Great Wall prior to visiting the real place.
Among the passes on the Great Wall, Jiayuguan Great Wall is the most intact surviving ancient military building. It is the last pass at the furthest west of the Great Wall of China. On the other hand, you can consider it as the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall.
Jiayuguan Great Wall, here I come :)
Those who are interested, can rent the plated armour suit :)
Majestic architecture ~ The wall and tower of the Jiayuguan Pass.
Mystical creatures (?dragon) on the roof top.
Jiayuguan Pass or Great Wall was built during Ming Dynasty in 1372. The pass is also known as "The First and Greatest Pass Under Heaven" (天下第一雄关).
Entering the interior of the pass :)
Two different pathway leading to the tower (Steep pathway vs staircase). Those who are adventurous can walk up via the steep pathway (with the risk of falling down).
*Trying to imagine the ancient days*
And this part of the great wall is not as crowded as the one in Badaling, Beijing. :)
If u wanna lepas geram, u can do it here... The Archery corner. *Shoot* :)
It's kinda hot walking under the hot sun.. I wanna drink iced lemon tea.. or Cola :P
The pass covers an area of more than 33,500 square meters.
Majestic leh the architecture :)
Part of the ancient Great Wall :)
The tower taken from different angle.
According to legend, when the Jiayuguan Pass was planned, the officer asked the designer to estimate the exact number of bricks required and the designer gave him a number. The officer questioned his judgment, asking him if that would be enough, so the designer added one brick. When Jiayuguan was completed, there was one brick leftover, which was placed on one of the gates where it remains till today. Did u notice the extra brick? If u didn't see it, look again closely at the above picture (or u can enlarge the picture by clicking on it). Give yourself a pat on the shoulder if you manage to find it. :)
Another shot of the mystical creature on the roof top.
Cantik leh the wall. Time to bid farewell... :)

Addendum :

To those who still cannot see the extra brick in the above picture, hopefully u can view it here. If u still not able to see it, then i dunno what to say liao :P

19 comments:

mistipurple said...

*squint eyes to find brick*
in the middle is it that one?
so clever hor the designer? like got heavenly power to predict so exact.

mistipurple said...

wah look at the time you posted. (2.22) and the time i commented. (3.33) hehe.

Furkids in Hong Kong™ said...

Wa Chen, late night tonight? Fai dee sleep la.

I'm guessing the extra brick is the one placed on the middle of the lower ledge?

Thanks for the nice tour of a lesser known part of the wall. Great pics and tour!

Pink Cotton said...

i m confused...
got so many great wall of china ka?

Chen said...

misti,
Kekkekke, Imagine Misti with mata juling, squinting her eyes to search for the extra brick. :P

Nice number, can go & buy number liao tomorrow... err, should be today liao. :P

Furkids,
Cos busy facebook-ing and furthermore i'm not working today mah, hence can afford to sleep late, and supposely wake up late too. But... I still wake up early despite not putting alarm clock. LOL

Yeah, your guess is right :)

pink cotton,
Pink Cotton, great wall is very long mah, hence can offer protection to the whole China. And China is so huge woh. That's why it's called "The Great Wall" becos it's great.

And the name of the great wall in Chinese is 万里长城, which means the wall is more than 10 thousand miles in length. Kekekeke..

rainbow angeles said...

wuah.. the designer so keng.. so accurate geh..

Doreen said...

*Eyes wide open, jaw drops*

Magnificient!!!! Really have to give it to the ancient Chinese people!

*Eyes still wide open, jaw still drops*

Chen said...

angeles,
Yeah loh. I quickly looked around for the extra brick when i was told the story and i found it within a short while. Kekkekek.. Hence i cepat-cepat snap one photo :P

Our ancestor very keng hoh?
With limited facilities and resources in the past, they can come up with such magnificent and splendour architectures.

doreen,
cannot open jaw too long leh
dowan jaw dislocation to occur woh :P

That's why they are qualified to be called.. the descendants of dragon ;)

seefei said...

you put the brick there and fabricate the story right? the 2nd pic underexposed a bit. should have pp it doh!!

seefei said...

forgot to complement on the many2 beautiful pictures hehehe...

Chen said...

seefei,
Hahaha, that is only possible if i can climb on the wall like spiderman. Btw, I have just added another photo showing the extra brick :)

Supposedly we are not allowed to take photo inside the museum, hence a quick snap of the replica. And i lazy wanna ps lah :P

Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

Cool armour...did you put it on?

Wyn said...

yes yes...can see can see...

ada prize kah? hehe...=P

many many nice pictures...envy jiejie lor...

Chen said...

fibrate,
No leh.. no time also
and also i'm not really interested to put on those local costume when i go traveling :)

i managed to find it when i look around at the whold place (without guidance which block of the tower the brick was placed) also no pressie leh :P

When u start working time, u can also earn money to go traveling. Last time when i study uni time, i only cuti-cuti malaysia :)

Simple American said...

Really looks neat. Hope I can go there someday. But better pick a cool day, huh?

Anonymous said...

Have read about 嘉峪关. It's good to see it being so well-maintained.
I really can't wait till I visit China end of this year!

khengsiong said...

How come Jiayuguan is called "The greatest male pass under the heaven" (天下第一雄关)? Can it ever be female???

I went to Badaling near Beijing years ago, but this one is much better.

Chen said...

SA,
The good thing of visiting during Summer time is the daytime is much longer and we have ample time for sightseeing (the sky only gets dark at 10 pm) compared with visiting during winter :)

CC,
U planning to visit which area in China? I've visited to Beijing, Chengde, Tianjin, Jiuzhaigou, Chengdu, Sichuan, Yangtze river cruise and visiting the surrounding cities and Silk Road (at different time). Too bad we can't visit Jiuzhaigou again...

khengsiong,
Well, during the ancient time in China, male are more superior than female and female have no say in most things. Remember the foot binding aka 3 inch foot causing permanent disabilities?

I visited Badaling Great Wall in 2002. The place is packed with tourist.

Anonymous said...

I'm visiting Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, then Hong Kong and Macau. :)