Yangguan Pass, China

Yangguan Pass is located west of Dunhuang and it’s essentially the end of the Great Wall. It was a major stronghold on the western border of the Han Dynasty, alongside Yumenguan Pass, east of Dunhuang. Emperor Wu ordered the construction of the two passes to protect the frontier and Dunhuang. The two passes were connected by a 40mi (64km) wall interspersed with beacon towers at 3mi (5km) intervals. 

Both passes served as trading posts on the Silk Road, providing food and water supplies to travellers and armies. Just like Dunhuang, Yangguan profited from the Silk Road trade, until its decline during the Ming era. 

With the exception of one beacon tower, nothing else remains of the pass as it was buried beneath the sand dunes, long ago. However, there is a museum in its place exhibiting thousands of items from the two passes and the Silk Road.

The Great Wall is a remarkable structure, built by multiple dynasties across two millennia. It spans over 13,000mi (21,000km) across various parts of China. A lot of effort went into protecting the northern and northwest borders. Mountains and rivers were used as natural barriers and earth, reeds, bricks and stones were used to build and reinforce the Walls. Millions of people were conscripted to work on the Wall and many died on the job. Various ethnic groups ruled, each empire replacing the other through a series of rebellions or military campaigns. 

The Great Wall is a Chinese cultural icon and a symbol of its unification. It is a representation of stoicism, cohesiveness and national pride. It has inspired paintings, poems, operas, stories and legends. But most of all it is an engineering marvel. 

Let me leave you with a famous folk story called, The Tears of Meng Jiangnu:

Meng Jiangnu met and fell in love with the fugitive scholar, Fan Xiliang. Not long after they were married, Fan was found by the Imperial Guards and promptly dragged away as a prisoner to work on the Great Wall. Meng waited for him day and night. When winter came and Fan did not return, she packed some warm clothes and began her long journey to search for him. When she arrived at the Wall, she was informed that Fan had died and was buried inside the Great Wall. Devastated, she wept for days at the Wall until a section of it collapsed. There in the crumbled heap, Meng found her husband’s bones. She carefully wrapped them in his winter clothes and made the long journey home where Fan had a proper burial.

I may have started at the Old Dragon’s Head near the Bohai Sea but I think I have finally found the dragon’s tail. How about you?