Dongjiakou Great Wall

49 kilometers north of Qinhuangdao City, Dongjiakou Pass is among piling peaks and verdant trees. Along the 8.9-kilometer long Great Wall in this section, there are 36 watch towers, 28 wall towers, 16 beacon towers and 3 castles. The highest point is 556 meters above sea level. Except the castles, the rest are still well preserved till now.

The three castles were forts in Ming Dynasty, namely Dongjiakou Fort, Damaoshan Fort and Chengziyu Fort, where the garrison guarding the Great Wall of Ming stationed . But they developed into villages gradually. One kilometer east of Dongjiakou Village is Damaoshan Village while two kilometers west of it lies Chengziyu Village.  

The Dongjiakou (sometimes called Jizhen) Great Wall was initially built in 1381 AD, In 1571AD, Qijiguang, a famous general in the Ming Dynasty transformed it into a first-class border wall. With a length of 8.9 kilometers, this portion of the Great Wall winds its way up and down the Stone Step Mountain, the Damao Mountain, and (finally) the Rock Mountain. It has 2 strategic passes, 31 Watchtowers, 14 Beacon Towers, and three Fortresses: the Pochengzi Fortress, the Dongjiakou Fortress, and Damao Fortress. (Today, only the ruins of the Damao Fortress can be found, south of Dongjiakou village). Although the Dongjiakou Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty is more than 620 years old , it has remained one of the best-preserved sections of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. Developed into tourist site, these castles were established in the north of Damaoshan Village, there are six watch towers along the way.

       This accomplishment can be attributed to the inhabitants of Dongjiakou village. The villagers of Dongjiakou are the descendants of the builders and guards of the Great Wall. Therefore, the villagers have taken it upon themselves to maintain this section of the Wall as original as possible. Due to lack of personal money, they have been able to restore only a small section, but have done a remarkable job none-the-less. Old bricks were collected and re-deployed to repair broken sections. The original arch-stone, displaying a beautiful sculpture of two lions playing with a ball of silk, was re-installed onto the Watchtower's Gate, although other arch-stones with elegant Chinese characters in relief are still lying in the corner for future renovations. It is interesting to note that a local villager, Mr. Sun, has taken it upon himself to make a voluntary daily inspection of the Wall to ensure its safety.

       Visitors to this part of the Great Wall are privileged to see a rare sight - the Cihou Tower. Cihou is a solid command post with no roof, giving the defenders a 360-degree-view of the whole area. This 4-sided structure has 24 observation holes(6 on each side). This structure can not be found anywhere else. It is interesting to notice that there are quite a few watchtowers named after the surnames of various historical commanders: the Sun's Watchtower, the Gen's Watchtower, the Wang's Watchtower, etc. And one will find the Sun, Gen, Wang are the three most-common surnames of the villagers.