"The Great Wall, the Golden Mountain Show". In the eyes of many people, the Jinshan Ridge, with its continuous mountains and ups and downs, is the "most beautiful Great Wall".
The Jinshanling Great Wall in summer is surrounded by green. The weather got hot, and the people who went up the mountain set off early. As usual, Guo Zhongxing climbed the Great Wall on time at 5:50 and started the live broadcast to introduce the Jinshanling Great Wall to netizens. Guo Zhongxing is the director of the Jinshanling Great Wall Cultural Relics Protection Center, and has been working on the Jinshanling Great Wall for 25 years.
In June 2021, the third large-scale conservation and repair of the Jinshanling Great Wall began, and the main repair project was completed in October of the same year. Since then, the news of the third large-scale protection and repair of Jinshanling has been frequently searched. Why has the restoration received so much attention?
Guo Zhongxing introduced that in 2019, the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park was officially launched, and the Jinshanling Great Wall was listed as a key construction section of the Great Wall National Cultural Park (Hebei Section), and was generally positioned as a "cultural and tourism integration demonstration area". At present, the construction of Jinshanling Great Wall National Cultural Park is at the forefront of the country, summarizing replicable and replicable experience for all localities, so that more Great Wall can be protected.
In the course of this large-scale conservation and renovation, new problems were also discovered in the Jinshanling Great Wall, and after the 475-meter wall was removed from the soil and grass, many bricks inside had weathered and there were serious water seepage problems. Before the end of the month, the Jinshanling Great Wall will begin the in-depth renovation project, which is expected to be completed by October 1, when the Jinshanling Great Wall will welcome visitors with a new look.
Jinshanling Great Wall. Photo by Guo Zhongxing
After the renovation, the tourist route was extended
Located in Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, the Jinshanling Great Wall is known as the essence of the Great Wall and is known for its rigorous military defense design. On the Jinshanling Great Wall, you can see the military defense systems such as barrier walls, support walls, horse retaining walls, beacon towers, artillery forts, observation towers, shooting holes, thunder stone holes, etc., which are fortified layer by layer and are solid.
Climbing up the steps from the entrance of the Jinshanling Great Wall, people will clearly feel the change of high and low under the soles of their feet, and they should be extra careful when climbing. In fact, such a high and low step design is a "careful machine" to prevent the enemy from invading, so as to increase the difficulty of the enemy's march.
The Jinshanling Great Wall, built during the Ming Hongwu period, was presided over by the general Xu Da, and later rebuilt by Qi Jiguang, the general soldier of Jizhen. In the 80s of the last century, the Jinshanling Great Wall underwent a large-scale restoration repair, followed by a second large-scale repair in 2014. In 2021, the third large-scale protection and repair was launched, mainly involving 5 enemy buildings and 475 extension meters of wall from West Five Eyes Tower to Six Eyes Tower, focusing on horse road renovation, emergency reinforcement of enemy buildings, and shaving and repairing weathered parts of walls. It is reported that this section of the Great Wall is seriously weathered, and there are problems such as water seepage from enemy buildings, stagnant water on horse roads, and weathering of external walls, which is the part of the Jinshanling Great Wall that needs to be repaired urgently.
"After years of wind and sun, most of this section of the Great Wall should be repaired, and this repair is carried out on the basis of maintaining the original appearance, with the principle of minimum intervention, eliminating the danger of the Great Wall and allowing the Great Wall to be protected." Guo Zhongxing introduced that in the third large-scale protection and repair of the Jinshanling Great Wall, the craftsmen who repaired it came from Langfang, Baoding and other places in Hebei, and most of them had participated in the restoration work of the Jiankou Great Wall and the Shanhaiguan Great Wall and had rich experience.
In the area of Jinshanling, the walls of the Great Wall are mostly brick-clad walls, that is, the two sides are piled with green bricks, and the inside is filled with rammed earth or earth and stone. During the repair process, workers will seal the cracks in the wall with white mortar to prevent rainwater from penetrating into the interior of the wall and causing damage to the wall. White mortar is a material mixed with white ash and clay in a certain proportion, and its flexibility and strength are even better than modern cement.
The repaired Jinshanling Great Wall brings tourists a better tour experience, it turns out that tourists to the West Five Eyes Tower, most of them do not go west, after the 475-meter extension wall section in the west is repaired, the tourists' tour route will be extended. This renovation not only increases the long-term protection of the Great Wall, but also provides more guarantees for the safe tour of tourists.
At the end of June, the through train from Beijing Dongzhimen to Jinshanling Great Wall Scenic Area resumed operation, and in the summer, the Jinshanling Great Wall may usher in a wave of peak passenger flow.
Comparison of local restoration of Jinshanling Great Wall. Photo courtesy of interviewee
Comparison of local restoration of Jinshanling Great Wall. Photo courtesy of interviewee
The experience of building the Great Wall can be replicated and replicated
Climb the Jinshanling Great Wall, the view is particularly wide, and when the weather is good, the entire Great Wall can be seen. This is also the place where you can feel the "long" of the Great Wall, Jinshanling Great Wall from Longyukou in the west to Wangjing Tower in the east, a total length of 10.5 kilometers, from west to east the altitude rises rapidly, Wangjing Tower is like a dragon's head raised to the sky, the entire section of the Great Wall is like a dragon's body, winding in the lofty mountains.
"Standing on the Jinshanling Great Wall, you can even see more than 50 kilometers in the east-west direction, which is very visually impactful." Guo Zhongxing will also introduce the Jinshanling Great Wall during the live broadcast, and every Saturday, he will also broadcast the sunrise on the Great Wall. At its peak, a live broadcast was viewed by 1.2 million people, and the number of fans of "Great Wall Lao Guo" exceeded 340,000. It turned out that people knew a lot about the Badaling Great Wall, and now through Guo Zhongxing's video live broadcast, more and more people know about the Jinshanling Great Wall.
Due to the valley and low terrain near the Jinshanling Great Wall, it is easy to encounter attacks, so the enemy buildings along the entire line of the Great Wall are dense, the minimum distance is only about 40 meters, and the longest is not more than 200 meters. Of the 5 enemy buildings repaired this time, 3 are hollow, and the former two-story wooden structure has decayed and has long been turned into an open-air enemy building.
Before the repair, some of the green bricks on the enemy building had been weathered by half, and it seemed that the Great Wall wall had many large and small holes. After the restoration, these weathered green bricks have been replaced, preserving the simplicity of the Great Wall to the greatest extent. Zhou Baoquan, a villager who participated in the second large-scale repair in 2014, said that the repair mainly repaired more than two-thirds of the green bricks from Houkawaguchi to Higashigoyanlou, which needed to be replaced in one piece. And this manual repair method is also used in this large-scale repair.
Speaking of the third large-scale protection and repair of the Jinshanling Great Wall, Guo Zhongxing stood at the fork near the General Building and pointed out the repaired West Five Eyes Building not far away to reporters. According to reports, the repair raw materials use green bricks and white lime, the longer the white lime is used, the greater the viscosity, and it will calcify over time, green bricks try to use old green bricks, really can't find old green bricks when they use new green bricks, new and old green bricks are only slightly different in color, and overall can show a simple style.
"The entire repair project of the Jinshanling Great Wall adheres to the three principles of 'original form, raw materials and original craftsmanship', and maintains the simple and vicissitudes of the Jinshanling Great Wall to the greatest extent." Guo Zhongxing said that in the eastern and western sections of the Jinshanling Great Wall, the current repairs are all emergency reinforcement repairs, maintaining the original style of the Great Wall, and many tourists prefer such a Great Wall.
After the large-scale protection and repair is completed, Guo Zhongxing will also organize the Great Wall protectors to carry out daily maintenance and protection. Every spring, before the Jinshanling Great Wall welcomes a large number of tourists, a full line of inspection is carried out here, and once the bricks are found to be loose, they must be replaced in time. At present, there are 12 protectors in the entire section of the Jinshanling Great Wall, each of whom is responsible for the inspection and protection of about 500 meters of the Great Wall.
The "Great Wall National Cultural Park (Hebei Section) Construction and Protection Plan" proposes to complete the construction of four key sections of Shanhaiguan section, Jinshanling section, Dajingmen section and Chongli section, as well as a number of protection projects with great influence and demonstration significance, and launch a number of replicable and popularized achievements and experiences, forming a number of national demonstration models for the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Great Wall.
Combining large-scale protection and repair with daily inspection and maintenance, the protection and activation mechanism formed by the Jinshanling Great Wall is forming replicable and replicable experience. Guo Zhongxing said that after the repair of the Jinshanling Great Wall, they successively received delegations from other regions, and the repair of the Jinshanling Great Wall also provided reference and reference for various places.
Comparison of local restoration of Jinshanling Great Wall. Photo courtesy of interviewee
Comparison of local restoration of Jinshanling Great Wall. Photo courtesy of interviewee
The protection does not stop, and the deep repair is about to begin
During the third large-scale conservation and repair process, the staff found that many bricks in the Great Wall wall had weathered and there were serious water seepage problems, which would be improved in the supplementary repair.
At present, some of the green bricks on the exterior walls of this section of the Great Wall are heavily weathered and honeycomb-shaped, especially the weathered bricks sandwiched in the middle. "Workers should be extra careful when repairing, they can't use brute force, they can only hook out little by little, they can't affect other bricks, it's a very meticulous work." After the façade is replenished, these weathered bricks will be replaced. ”
In addition, the bottom layer of the horse road of the Jinshanling Great Wall is a brick and the upper layer is a square brick, and in the process of large-scale repair, after the vegetation of this section of the horse road is cleared, the existing bottom brick is seriously damaged, and some of the upper square bricks are seriously weathered, so that the horse road is uneven, resulting in poor drainage.
Due to the insufficient bricks estimated in the original project, the amount of work to repair this section of the horse road has a large gap, this time the supplementary repair will make up for this gap, for such a point on the horse road, increase the amount of work, pave the bricks on the horse road, improve the display effect of the Great Wall, fundamentally solve the drainage problem of the Great Wall itself, and further ensure the safety of tourists to visit and visit.
Guo Zhongxing said that the supplementary repair project is in the preparation stage of building materials, and in-depth repairs will begin before the end of the month.
Jinshanling Great Wall in a sea of clouds. Photo by Guo Zhongxing
The Great Wall of Waterlogging, also located in Luanping County, is also in urgent need of repair. The total length of the Great Wall is 18.8 kilometers, and preliminary investigation and investigation found that some city walls have been damaged and collapsed, and do not have the conditions for repair, but there are still dozens of enemy buildings, which have protection value. Guo Zhongxing believes that the protection experience of the Jinshanling Great Wall can be applied to the protection of the Great Wall of Waterlogging.
In 2021, the jurisdiction of the Great Wall was changed from the Cultural Protection Institute to the Jinshanling Great Wall Cultural Relics Protection Center. In order to rescue and protect the Great Wall of Waterlogging, the Jinshanling Great Wall Cultural Relics Protection Center hired nine local villagers as Great Wall protectors to regularly inspect the Great Wall and report the danger in time.
In order to facilitate the inspection and recording of the Great Wall protector, the protection center has established the waterlogged Great Wall protection workstation. The Great Wall protectors go to the mountain every week to inspect and report regularly, forming the initial protection of the waterlogged Great Wall as a whole. However, the rainy season has arrived, rain, snow and lightning weather has a greater impact on the Great Wall, whenever after bad weather, the Great Wall protectors have to go up the mountain to see if there is a lightning strike or collapse, this period is the Great Wall needs to focus on protection.
"The renovation plan for the Great Wall is progressing." Guo Zhongxing said that due to limited funds, it is currently being repaired in a quantitative manner every year. In the next step, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty in the county will also be thoroughly investigated, prioritized and eliminated.
Beijing News reporter Geng Ziye
Edited by Bai Shuang Proofread by Zhai Yongjun