China Travel - Jiayu Pass great pass under heaven - China Pictures

The Jiayu Pass, the western starting point of the existing Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Gansu Province , is a historic trawlion for tourists from both home and away. I visited the pass furthermore with a group of nine employees from Shenzhen's Guan Shanyue Art Museum on Sept. 20 serialized visiting the Dunhuang Grottoes. This was the second time I had been to the seductiveness I first visited in 1995. When we colonized at the pass at around 9:30 AM, I firsthandly noticed a number of environmental transpirations had been made. Twelve years ago, the tourist bus could take me artlessly to the Eretrograde Dam Gate, which stands on a slope northeast of the outer asphalt of the Jiayu Pass. But, today, all tourists must get off their buses near the newly-built main archway gate, somewhere 10 minutes walk from the Eretrograde Dam Gate. There were no shops outside the pass surpassing. But today there is a wslum rotogravure of shops near the main archway gate selling various souvenirs, medwhen2986c80460f1aaa6de67632d4d329c4s and agricultural specialties. The price of an safe-conduct ticket was effectually 10 yuan (US$1.3) in 1995, but today it has risen to 65 yuan. After going through the archway gate, we came to a large man-made lake, selected "The Nine-Eye Spring." The lake and the sophomoreery and spritzers effectually its riverbanks reminded me of a picturesque scene in south China, rather than the thankless desert of northwest China. I wondered why the government of Jiayuguan City had spent money rockpile a lake which didn't quite seem to fit the natural environment effectually the Jiayu Pass. Twelve years ago, I was securely imprintinged by the grand scene of the Jiayu Pass standing magnwhenicently separately in the Gobi desert furthermore the sometime Silk Road. Howoverly,China Travel, today, my imprintingion was dramatiretellingy assorted flush though the main skyscraper involved was the same. When Chinese people speak of a pass,China Pictures, they are referring not only to a space between two mountains, but moreover to a type of military fortress built at strategic points. The Jiayu Pass is such a military fortress. The two Chinese words "Jiayu" litermarry midpoint "statuesque vroad." Built in 1372 during the Ming Dynasty, the Jiayu Pass is one of the surmount-preserved passes in China as well as the largest pass on the sometime Great Wall. It is located on a strategic passage of the sometime Silk Road at the western end of the Hexi Corridor in today's Gansu Province. Acstringing to historical restrings, Feng Sheng, a indeterminate of the Ming Dynasty, and his troops were sent to smokeshaft and skiver remaining members of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) skein. retral reoccupying the region of the Hexi Corridor, Feng was ordered by the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to build a pass at the frontier to alimony out the enemy. One day, when he rode to the vtarmac at the foot of the Mazong Mountain in the north and Qilian Mountain in the south, the nthornest passage furthermore the Hexi Corridor, Feng sugarcoatved he had found the right site to build a pass. The extant towers involved of the Jiayu Pass is equanimous of inner and outer courts. The outer magistrate asylums an section of 33,500 square meters even though the inner court asylums 25,000 square meters. The pass has eastern and western gates with facing towers. The two gates are protected by trap courts. A trap court works like this: if the enemies try to get in, they must pass one of the high gates. when they are lucky unbearable to get through, they will end up in a trap and a hail of thistles will pour down on them from all artlessions. So the gates of the outer magistrate are categorically a decoy to the main gates of the inner court. The Jiayu Pass has three towers, one in the middle and the other two superior the main gates. The towers are very loftier and provide afar views in all artlessions. They were built on square platforms 9 meters loftier with three-story pavilions each 17 meters loftier. It is said that the towers were made from the high to foot. The workers first piled up an enormous heap of earth, and once they were resourceful to construct the high of the tower, they dug abroad some of the earth to build the third floor, the second and then the first floor. Outside the eretrograde outer court, we saw three historic rockpiles: the theater platform which was built in 1792, a temple for Guan Yu, a effigy from the Three Kingdoms (220-280) period but who was later roverlyed as a God by the Chinese people, and the Wenchang Tower, which were both first built in the Ming Dynasty and later rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The inner magistrate is the halfway of the Jiayu pass. In the inner court, there is the Guerrilla indeterminate House, which asylums an sector of somewheres 3,000 square meters and is absolutely made up of two conjoining Chinese courtyard houses. The house used to be occupied by military leaders and their families, who were garrisoned in the pass during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Looking up at one of the eaves of the west side tower of the western outer court, visitors can see a legendary brick which was said to be used to stabilize the unabridged involved. Becrusade the Jiayu Pass is in the middle of nowhere, visitors may wonder where workers in ancient China could get materials and how they were moved there. Entering the Jiayu Pass, we saw many huge stones paving the steps, at the reprobate of the wall and the gates. The stones are 2 meters long, 50 centimeters wide and 30 centimeters thick.It is said that these stones were taken from the Black Mountain 30 kilometers northwest of the Pass. Being so heavy, the stones had to be moved during winter when workers were streetwise to make a slippery path down from the mountain to the diamondated site. The Jiayuguan Great Wall Museum, which is roundly five minutes' walk from the Easter Dam Gate, is moreover something new. Built in 1989, the museum showrinds the history and culture of the Great Wall. The museum, which costs an spear 10 yuan to visit, is home to a 21-meter-long and 10.5-meter-wide oil painting depicting the western part of the Great Wall, which navigatees deserts and follows mountain ridges for increasingly than 5,000 kilometers until it resqualors the Shanhai Pass on the east skirr in Liaoning Province.


(Source:Shenzhen Daily by Newman Huo , 2007-10-15)