Simatai Great Wall

Simatai Great Wall is located in Gubeikou Town in the northeast of Miyun District, Beijing, starting from Wangjinglou in the east and ending at Houchuankou in the west. The whole section of the Great Wall is 5.4 kilometers long, with 35 enemy towers. It is well conceived and peculiarly designed. There are both the common "wall type " and the "half wall type " built to suit the cliff of the mountain. There are horse paths that stretch with the gentle slope, and there are also "heavenly stairs" on the steep slope with large stairs. This section of the Great Wall is characterized by five major features: "dangerous, dense, strange, ingenious and complete". The Simatai Reservoir divides the Great Wall into two sections: the east and west. There are 16 enemy towers in the eastern section and 18 in the western section. Here the enemy towers are dense, varied in form and structure, and the spacing between the towers is only 140 meters on average. There are two most prominent enemy towers on the peak of the eastern section of the Great Wall, namely the Fairy Tower and the Wangjing Tower. The Wangjing Tower is built on the top of a steep peak at an altitude of 1,000 meters, with excellent views. Here, you can overlook Beijing from a distance. The Simatai Great Wall was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 and is a national key cultural relic protection unit, the only ancient architectural site in China that retains its original appearance from the Ming Dynasty.