The Great Wall is under the eaves: a non-legacy tour of the Great Wall

written by Zhang Qingren, Mao Qiaohui and Bao Yuanyuan in Shanshan Xu

China Pictorial Publishing House

This book takes the Great Wall as the line, takes the iconic intangible cultural heritage and ancient villages as the point, and covers various forms of cultural resources such as intangible cultural heritage, tourist attractions, red culture, folklore, ethnic integration, rural revitalization, catering and food. Easy and lively words, or show the majestic beauty of the Great Wall, or analyze the simplicity and elegance of the village, with exquisite photography and hand-painted pictures, lead readers to understand the intangible heritage and cultural beauty along the Great Wall in a new way. With more than 5, words, nearly 4 photos and hand-drawn drawings, the book comprehensively presents the food, accommodation, travel, entertainment and so on in the Great Wall cultural belt with a participatory and experiential writing style and a relaxed and humorous style.

"The Best of the Great Wall" Simatai

Simatai Village is famous for its great wall. The Simatai Great Wall, built on the steep mountain, is famous for its five characteristics of danger, density, uniformity, cleverness and completeness, and integrates natural landscape and cultural landscape, which has rich historical significance. It was listed in the World Heritage List in 1987, and it is the only ancient architectural site in China that retains the original appearance of the Ming Dynasty, and was recognized by the United Nations.

It's best to go to Simatai on a sunny day. Under the boundless blue sky, you can see the Great Wall galloping and bending along the blade-like ridge. You can take a horse in a wide place, and only one person can pass in a narrow place. When it rises, it looks like a tiger roaring in Yuan Ye, and when it crouches, it looks like a hidden dragon in the deep. What is even more interesting is the 35 watchtowers of different sizes and shapes, which are built on various commanding heights according to local conditions, imposing, cold and straight. The watchtower on the Simatai Great Wall is of profound historical significance, and its construction is closely related to Qi Jiguang, a famous national hero in the history of China. In 1567, Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese soldier on the southeast coast, was transferred to Yanji, leading thousands of soldiers from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province to Jimen. During his 15 years in the northern border, he rebuilt the Great Wall and reorganized the military discipline. The Sima Tai Great Wall, which was praised by later generations as "dangerous, dense, strange, skillful and complete", was originally created when Qi Jiguang was in charge of the defense of Jizhou. They were built according to the rank of the garrison, the number of garrison troops and the degree of terrain danger. The enemy platforms are horns and help each other, and the enemy platforms are equipped with artillery, which is enough to resist the Tatar cavalry in the north. The perfect combination of aesthetic value and military value is rare in the world.

Among the 35 enemy towers of the Great Wall in Simatai section, two are the most famous-wangjinglou and Fairy Tower. Only by seeing them can we truly appreciate what is the "best of the Great Wall". Wangjinglou is located in the eastern section of Simatai Great Wall, built at the top of a mountain that rises from the ground, and is the commanding height of Simatai Great Wall, with an elevation of 986 meters. It is a hollow brick eye building with two-story masonry structure. Looking up from the bottom, I saw the broken wall full of historical vicissitudes standing on the top of a vertically rising mountain called the main peak of Tiger Mountain, which showed golden color under the sunshine. After staring for a long time, not only my eyes were stimulated by the light, but my neck was sore. If you look down from top to bottom, the view is extremely broad. When there is no cloud in Wan Li, you can vaguely see the outline of Beijing, and you can enjoy the lights in the city at night, so it is called wangjinglou. When you climb the stairs, you feel that you are in a place where the sky is high and the clouds are light, and your robe is one of the coolness. Standing at the top of the building, the magnificent mountain is closed, and the dragon is winding, full of lofty sentiments and ambitions, and life is fast.

The Fairy Tower is located in the west of wangjinglou, which is the most beautifully built one among many enemy towers. It is also located on a steep peak of Tiger Mountain, second only to wangjinglou in elevation. Due to the limitation of the peak area, it can only be built slender, with the north and south sides close to the cliff, and the east and west sides rely on a unilateral wall with a width of only 4 cm, and both sides of the wall are also cliffs. The lower part of the building is closed with a stone, and the upper part is topped with a grinding brick. There are two large arches, three tunnels and ten ticket doors made of blue bricks inside. An octagonal algae well in the shape of a spider web is built in the center of the top, with four brick columns on four sides. There are also two flowers carved on the stone pillar of the entrance, holding a peach. No matter from the overall appearance or internal details, the whole building gives people a sense of exquisiteness, delicacy and beauty, as if this is not a defense facility for human war, but a fairyland castle.

cultural spectacle Kirin screen wall

Simatai Great Wall is not only famous for its breathtaking scenery and historical connotation, but also famous for its spectacular collection of Great Wall culture. Many cultural relics have been found in this section of the Great Wall, the most noteworthy of which is a Kirin screen wall between the enemy stations at No.13 west of the Great Wall in Simatai.

The height of the screen wall of Kirin is 1.99 meters and the width is more than two meters. The lower part of the screen wall is a sumitomo made of several layers of bricks, the upper part is covered with a tile roof, and the center is a brick carving unicorn map. I saw Kirin's hooves blowing, her hips hunched, her tail turned up, her mane fluttered, her eyes opened, and she looked back and roared, heroic and majestic. Kirin is an auspicious beast in China mythology, which means that the world is peaceful and everything goes well. It hopes that the nation will be strong and its descendants will flourish, and it will give the guarding city generals the majestic momentum and strength to defend one side's peace. On both sides of Kirin are cylindrical brick frames decorated with bamboo joints. Why is the shadow wall in Beijing combined with the bamboo festival in the south? It is said that it is related to the Zhejiang soldiers who followed Qi Jiguang to the north. Soldiers are far away from home, expressing their feelings by borrowing things, and pinning their long homesickness and full feelings for home and country with bamboo knots. A screen wall entrusted the people of ancient China with their yearning for peace, and also contained the soldiers' yearning for their hometown, which was of far-reaching significance. It can be seen that the ancients were ingenious in building this section of the Great Wall and skillfully integrated military and aesthetic ideas, making the Simatai Great Wall not only beneficial to actual combat, but also a rare artistic masterpiece.

Today, the Simatai Great Wall is not only beautiful in the daytime, but also the only Great Wall that can be climbed at night. When you climb the Great Wall during the day, you should appreciate the grandeur of Sima Tai. When you climb the Great Wall at night, you can feel the leisure of Sima Tai. On both sides of the road are orange light belts, just like Youlong, reminding the border and protecting the safety of tourists; Under the Great Wall is the famous Gubei Water Town, which is brightly lit and full of music, a paradise on earth; Looking up, the deep blue sky is clear and transparent, without the obstruction of tall buildings, and the night sky seems to be coming towards people, with stars and lights that match each other; It's windy in summer, the Great Wall is steep and unobstructed, and the wind is whistling in the ear, as if a brave man guarding the border had sung a desolate ballad for thousands of years. Tourists walk in the lee, wings are born under their ribs, and when they look up, they will sleep in the wind. There is no unbearable smell of city car exhaust in the snorting room, and the wind whines, bringing water vapor from the valley, fresh pine fragrance and perhaps unknown floral fragrance.

When you climb the Great Wall in Simatai at night, you can not only feel the multiple feasts of sight, hearing, smell and touch, but also touch the vicissitudes of masonry in the whimpering wind, and you can feel the mood of the ancient border guards. Those soldiers from other countries, including Qi Jiguang, may have leaned against the brick wall one night and thought about their own worries. Although time passes like a river, the bright moon is still there, the old Great Wall is still there, the once Kirin shadow wall is still there, and the emotions of human beings are still there. Although the development of science and technology is changing with each passing day, the emotions of human beings are interlinked, and the emotions of the ancients, or homesickness or determination to defend the country, can still be touched today.