As a historical scenic spot focusing on the Ming Great Wall, Simatai Great Wall is located in the Gubeikou Town to the northeast of Miyun County, and one can arrive there by going along the 101 National Road or Jingcheng Expressway. The Simatai Great Wall was first built in 1368, re-built in the period from Longqing to Wanli in the Ming Dynasty when Qi Jiguang was the general guarding the Ji Town. It is under the jurisdiction of the Ji Town. In 1987, Beijing government conducted maintenance work on the Simatai Great Wall. In 1990, it was formally opened to the public.
Simatai Great Wall starts from Wangjing Building in the east and ends at Houchuankou in the west. Stretching for 5.7 kilometers and containing 35 watch towers (including the tower in the water which has been damaged), it is one section of the Great Wall with concentrated watch towers. The distance between the nearest two towers is shorter than 20 meters. Simatai Great Wall has an imposing manner and strategically important situation. The whole section is carefully designed with various types of walls and watch towers. Most of them are well preserved, which shows the wisdom of laborers in ancient times, and has high values in military, art and architecture. Professor Luo Zhewen, the famous expert in Great Wall, points out that “China's Great Wall is number one in the world, and Simatai Great Wall is number one in China's Great Wall”.
Going through more than 400 years of weathering, Simatai Great Wall maintains the original looks of the Ming Great Wall, a large quantity of bricks engraved with words, exquisite embossment, perfect construction technology, so it preserves the historical information to the maximum degree. Simatai Great Wall stretches both eastwards and westwards. The east part is built on the sharp mountain ridges, rising from 295 meters to 986 meters within only 2.7 kilometers, so it looks like a huge dragon flying out from the lake towards the clouds. One may overlook the Great Wall from air, and appreciate various types of watch towers, obstacle walls, and marvelous Tian Pools, and huge tortoise stones. There are 15 watch towers on the summits. The “General Tower” is original in its type; The elegant “Fairy Tower” is the 15th watch tower on the east line of Simatai Great Wall, with coupled lotus embossment engraved on the white marble archway. It stands erectly like a fairy on the top of the summits. There is still the beautiful legend of the love story between the fairy and the shepherd. The next sight is the “Heaven Bridge” hanging on the steep summits and cliffs. Closely connecting to it is the “Wangjing Tower”, which the 16th watch tower on the east line of Simatai Great Wall, at a height of 986 meters. Standing on top of the Tiger Mount, it is the highest point of the Great Wall from Simatai to Gubeikou, enjoying the fame of “commanding point of cultural heritages in Beijing”. Standing on the tower, one can see the outline of Beijing in daytime and the lights of Beijing at night. There are two springs hidden in the valley, which converge into a lake. The lake is warm in one half and cold in another half. The smooth west part of Simatai Great Wall is quite attractive, with its original buttressed walls, parapet, crenel, doors and windows, top of buildings, holes for shooting, drain, water faucet, etc. On the thirteenth watch tower of the west section of the Simatai Great Wall, there is a kylin wall. The wall is on the southwest part of the upper layer crenel, with tiles on top of it. There is a vivid kylin composed of 15 square bricks in the middle part of the wall. Since the Simatai Great Wall was opened to the tourists, many sightseeing facilities including ropeway, rope-bridge, yacht, rapido for climbing the Great Wall, and strop have been built. Since 2002, the activities of crossing the Great Wall were held every year, which attracted a great deal of tourists. |
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