Top 8 Fun Facts about the Badaling Great Wall

Badaling Great Wall was once the major defensive wall along the rolling mountains that formed the northern frontier of the capital, Beijing. It is now the best-preserved and the most popular section among all. The following are some fun facts about the Badaling Great Wall that you may be interested in.

 

1. What’s the meaning of “Badaling”?

Badaling Great Wall

“Bada” is taken from the Chinese idiom “sitongbada,” which means convenient transportation and extending in all directions. “Ling” refers specifically to mountain ranges, so the combined “Badaling” can be understood as a mountain corridor connecting all directions. True to its name, Badaling connects Yanqing and Mongolia in the north, Zhangjiakou and Datong in the west, Yongning and Sihai in the east, and Changping and Beijing in the south, and can reach cities in all directions.
 

2. How old is the Badaling Great Wall?

Brick wall of the Badaling Great Wall

It has nearly 2,500 years' of history. The earliest ramparts and beacon towers around Badaling can be traced back to the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC). After that, many dynasties contributed to the construction on different scales. The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) was the last state that implemented the large-scale perfection of this section and founded the pass city in 1505. In 1568, General Qi Jiguang was appointed to supervise the reconstruction of the Great Wall and he devoted great efforts to this section and extended the length to 400 miles (643 kilometers) long when finished in 1582. After the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), the defensive function of Badaling faded. This once glorious military fortress began to dilapidate and most of it was in ruins. The Badaling Great Wall that we observe today is the result of restoration work carried out after 1949.

 

3. How many people visit the Badaling Great Wall every year?

The Badaling Great Wall has earned the title of “the king of tourist traffic”, attracting over 10 million visitors annually. It's scarcely conceivable that this figure is almost tantamount to the total population of Sweden flocking to this very site. And during the peak tourist season, the daily visitor count can soar to as many as 100,000.
 

4. Why is the Badaling Great Wall so popular among tourists?

Our Group Tour at Badaling

- The Badaling Great Wall, renowned as the most well-preserved and representative part of the Ming Great Wall, holds a prominent position among historical heritages. 

- It is the earliest section of the Great Wall to welcome tourists, highly satisfying their inherent curiosity and thirst for exploration. 

- Its prime location in close proximity to Beijing endows it with convenient public transportation access, making it easily reachable. Moreover, the comprehensive range of tourism facilities available, including cable cars, slideways, and wheelchair ramps, caters to the diverse needs of the vast majority of tourists. 

- As a quintessential landmark cultural landscape of China, it has served as a magnet for numerous domestic and foreign celebrities, whose visits have significantly enhanced its international standing and prestige

There are two beacon towers on the top of the mountains outside Badaling, which were equipped with fire spears and cannons and functioned as the alarm system. If enemies were sited, soldiers here would burn smoke during the daytime or light torches at night to warn garrisons at the Great Wall. The signal conveyed the number of enemies. One column of smoke and one gunshot indicated over 100 enemies, and two columns and two sounds meant there were over 500. If there were more than 1,000, they used three columns of smoke and three gunshots, while four columns and four sounds stood for over 5,000 and so on. In this way, military information can be quickly and accurately transmitted several kilometers away.

Beacon Tower

The  wall is wide enough for 10 people

6. The wall was wide enough for 10 soldiers or 5 horses to walk abreast.

The Badaling Great Wall stands at a height ranging from 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet) and features a trapezoidal plane. Its base width measures between 6.5 and 7.5 meters (21 to 25 feet), while the top width spans from 4.5 to 5.8 meters (15 to 20 feet). The majority of the top surface is broad and level, affording sufficient space for 10 individuals or 5 horses to proceed abreast. During wartime, such a width proved highly conducive to the swift and efficient mobilization of troops and the transportation of supplies.

 

7. How long does it take to walk the whole length of the Badaling Great Wall?

 

Hiking on the Badaling Great Wall

The Badaling Great Wall extends for a length of 7,600 meters (8,300 yards), among which the tourist-accessible section measures 3,741 meters (4,090 yards). This tourist section is further divided into a 1,176-meter (1,286-yard) southern part and a 2,565-meter (2,805-yard) northern part. Generally, it takes around 3 to 4 hours to complete the entire hiking journey. However, if there are elderly individuals, children, or tourists who have a penchant for pausing to take pictures, the duration might extend to more than 5 hours.

 

8. More than 540 national leaders have visited the Badaling Great Wall.

In October 1954, Indian Prime Minister Nehru became the first foreign leader to visit the Badaling Great Wall, which marked the beginning of the history of the Badaling Great Wall as an important state and protocol venue for the Chinese government. Since that time, a remarkable total of 541 heads of state and government from 179 countries have visited this iconic landmark. Prominent leaders such as Nixon, Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, Mandela, Bush Jr., Putin, and Obama have all imprinted their footprints and beamed their smiles upon the Great Wall, etching indelible memories into its time-honored stones.

Read more: