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Shanhaiguan. Shanhaiguan had another names in ancient times that share the same pronunciation of ‘Yúguan’. Today’s pass city of was built under the direction of Xu Da in 1381. Since it is close to a mountain and the Bohai sea, it was named Shanhaiguan (the pass of mountains and the sea). It was a most famous pass of the Ming Great Wall, lying 15 kilometers to the east of Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. To the north there is the Yan Mountain, and to the south there is the Bohai Sea. Its unique seat between the mountain and the sea enabled it to be a majestic and strategic stronghold. In ancient times it was an economic and cultural channel of communications for people dwelling inside and outside in the peacetime; in the wartime, it would become a place of contention.
The perimeter of Shanhaiguan is 4 kilometers. Its moat is 16 meters wide and 8 meters deep. The rampart is 12 meters high. On each side of the city there is a city gate. The eastern city gate face the direction outside the Great Wall, called Zhendongmen (the east-guard gate). The western gate face the inner pass, called Ying’enmen (the kindness-receiving gate). The southern gate face the sea, called Wangyangmen (the sea-facing gate). The northern gate face the wandering Great Wall, called Weiyuanmen (the majestic Great Wall-facing gate). Zhendongmen is the best kept one, on its huge platform there was built a battlement, i.e., the famous city tower entitled ‘the First Pass in the world’.
The battlement is 13.7 meters high, 10.10 meters wide from east to west, 20 meters long from south to north. The lower floor is 5.7 meters high, and the wall is 1.30 meters thick. The upper floor is 8 meters high, and the wall is 0.9 meters thick. The total building area is 198 square meters. It has the double layered saddle roof, the two eaves on the top ridge are in symmetry, under which there is brick-timber construction. On the cornices at the four angles there were decorated various attractive ridge animals. The eave purlins and the central portion of beams inside and outside the building were painted with colorful drawings of the Ming style, charming and magnificent.
Outside the eastern and western gates there were net cities. Outside the southern and northern gates there were wing cities. Still in the periphery of Shanhaiguan there dotted with wei, suo, castles, cities and beacon towers that made up the complete defense system of Shanhaiguan.
