300 ¥
Day by Day Itinerary
1
DAYItinerary
Picked up you at Datong Hotel at 8:00am by our English speaking experienced tour guide then drive to Yanmen Pass Great Wall,
About 200km of Datong. Yan means 'wild goose' in English, and was so-named because wild geese are seen flying around the pass every year. Early in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), King Wuling of Zhao established Yanmen County in this region.
The Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) built a pass called Xiting Pass by Yanmen Mountain, west of the present l ocation. In the year 1374 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644),the pass was rebuilt and moved to today's location.
This Great Wall pass is 0.6 miles wide. There are three gates: the small north gate, west gate and east gate. The small north gate is inscribed with the three characters, 'Yan Men Guan'; the west gate is labelled 'Di Li', meaning the favorable geographical location; the east gate is labelled 'Tian Xian', translated as the unbreakable stronghold. Adjacent to the pass, lies Jingbian Temple.
After that you will visit Guangwu Village .It is a still-inhabited ancient caved village, where hundreds of caves scale nine different levels of a hillside, it's possible to find whole communities made up entirely of cave dwellers. People have been living in caves in Shanxi for around 5000 years. Lijiashan is a perfect place to experience the cave houses wiht a history of over 500 years.
Departure: Daily
Duration: One Full Day (Approx. 8 hours per day)
Pick-up point and time: Your Hotel around 9am (or choose your own pick-up time)
Finishing point and time: Your Hotel around 5:30pm
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Yanmen Guan is part of the Outer Great Wall in Shanxi Province, just north of Taiyuan, and forms a chokepoint with Ningwu Guan as the central linchpin (and garrison base) and Pian Guan as the westernmost stronghold.
As the stronghold on the eastern flank, Yanmen Guan saw a lot of fighting throughout the centuries. It was first built during the Zhou Dynasty and then fortified over subsequent dynasties, especially the Tang and the Ming dynasties.
It is a spectacular section of the wall, made up of three fortresses, the central fortress is built over a tiny pass between two hills and is called Yanmen (Yan means "wild goose"—the fort and pass are named after the wild geese that migrate through this area each year). The western gate is called Di Li which is the second half of a Chinese quotation, Tian Shi Di Li which means to choose the proper weather, time and location for a battle—Di Li being the proper location. The eastern gate is called Tian Xian which translates into "natural barrier," but is meant to describe an impregnable fortress.
The gates and fortress themselves are restored and a sight to behold, but the walls leading out from here swiftly crumble into ruins.
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