 Badaling means “giving access to every direction”, the name itself suggests its strategic importance. Badaling Great Wall lies in Yangqing County, northwest of Beijing, It covers five counties and one district, namely: Miyun, Huairou, Pinggu, Yanqing and Changping County and Mentougou District.
Badaling Great Wall was the best preserved part of the Ming Great Wall. Here, the wall averages 7.8 meters high, 6.5 meters wide of the base, and 5.8 meters at the top. The wall was designed to allow five horsemen or ten soldiers to march side by side along the wall. The fights of stairs up to the outer wall are fairly widely spaced.
The wall could almost be considered as a superhighway on the rough mountain terrain. On the highway, news, men or even food could travel rapidly. Suppose you were a solider 500 years ago in the Ming Dynasty, when you found some enemies were about to invade country, what should they do? In the daytime, they start a heavy smoke to tell the other soldiers to get ready and friends, when seeing signal, would start another smoke in the distance, this signal would be relayed until finally it reached the capital and the whole country would be ready for the war. If the enemies invade the country at night, they light up beacon fires to communicate military information to the emperor at a very rapid speed.
For every few hundred meters, you can see a watchtower. Also, the wall of this section was built of giant rocks and bricks of similar size. It was faced with stone, and the inside was filled with earth and rubber, therefore, Badaling Great Wall was also regarded the strongest section of the Ming Great Wall. |
