The Great Wall beyond the crowds

3. Wushaoling in Wuwei, Gansu province

Wushaoling is located at the crossroads of the Loess Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau, and is one of the highest sections of the Great Wall.

Therefore, from a single vantage point, a condensed panoramic view of Northwest China gradually unfolds. Highland grassland seems to extend to the sky.

To the south, the Maya Snow Mountains, a branch of the Qilian Mountains, stay white all year round, their peaks glittering under the sun. Turn east, and thousands of ravines and gullies can be seen cutting through yellow earth, where the eroded remains of the Great Wall wind like a pale dragon. Looking west, the vegetation thins and the faint outline of the Gobi Desert appears, stretching toward the Hexi Corridor, the main artery of the ancient Silk Road, with a raw, empty vastness.

More than 2,000 years ago, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) ordered the construction of this part of the Great Wall after general Huo Qubing reclaimed the Hexi Corridor following victories in various battles. Since that time, historical figures like Han envoy Zhang Qian and Tang (618-907) Buddhist monk Xuanzang passed by Wushaoling on their journeys to Xiyu (Western Regions). Ming Dynasty rulers also built part of the Great Wall at Wushaoling.

Now, sections from both the Han and Ming periods can be seen. Standing beneath a beacon tower, with strong winds sweeping through the grass and flocks of cattle and sheep dotting the mountain slopes, one can sense the profound weight of history and the changes that have occurred over millennia.