Dongjiakou

Chinese: 董家口
Pinyin: Dǒng jiá kǒu
English: Dong's home pass
Coordinates: 40°13'14.40"N 119°39'0.59"E

The Dongjiakou Great Wall is a well-preserved and beautifully constructed section of the Great Wall. It has a high concentration of watch towers, and they vary in design from one to the next in many ways. Some of them boast elaborate carvings in the stone archways used at the top of tower doorways. Dongjiakou is a very interesting place to explore at leisure and take notice of fine details in construction of the walls and the towers.

Barrier walls at Damaoshan
Photo by Kim Siefert

One very unusual feature that is well-preserved on the Great Wall at Damaoshan is barrier walls. The barrier walls here are smaller than those found in the Jinshanling and Gubeikou areas of Beijing Municipality. They can be found at 40°13'18"N 119°39'53"E.

Dongjiakou, with Damaoshan visible in the background
Photo by Kim Siefert

The Dongjiakou area includes poorly-preserved but still visible fortresses in the towns of Damaoshan, Dongjiakou, and Chengziyu.

Location summary: Damaoshan is about 281 kilometers (175 miles) east of downtown Beijing. It is about 25 kilometers (15.4 miles) northwest of Shanhaiguan. The path of the Great Wall from Dongjiakou to Damaoshan is about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). The path of the Great Wall from Xigoucun to Damaoshan is about 3.6 kilometers (2.3 miles).

Dongjiakou is about 280 kilometers (174 miles) east of downtown Beijing. It is about 7.6 kilometers (4.7 miles) west of Zhuizishan. The path of the Great Wall from Zhuizishan to Dongjiakou is about 9.3 kilometers (5.8 miles) and is mostly continuous. The Chengziyu pass is just 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) to the west via the Great Wall.


Dongjiakou, with Yiyuankou, Naziyu, and Banchangyu in the background
Photo by Kim Siefert

Driving directions: From Beijing, drive east on the G1 Jinghua Expressway for 271 kilometers (168 miles). Exit at S251 and drive north for 23 kilometers (14 miles). Turn right at Shilingcun and drive for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Turn right at Zhucaoyingzhen and drive for 1.7 kilometers (1 mile) towards the 087 road. Drive for 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) to the 087 road. Drive on the 087 road for 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) to Dongjiakoucun.

Dongjiakou photos

After the fifth tower, there's not much left. The sixth tower is all but gone.

A map I saw on the road walking back to Shangying (上营) which has a bus going back to Qianxi for 10 kuai. You can see Qingshanguan, Dongjiakou and other possible locations for the Great Wall on it. For anyone considering taking the bus to Shangying and then walking to Dongjiakou, it's roughly an hour's walk.

What is this, part of the Great Wall or something built by the farmers? I've never seen something like this before.

This is from a mountain on the other side. Is it still Dongjiakou Great Wall? I'm not sure. If I have a chance I'd like to go back and check that part out.

Similar to what I saw before – again, is it part of the Wall or something else?

This is on the same mountain, just on the other side.

View from the first guard tower. You can see the other mountain's section I was talking about in my previous reply.

Just a nice view. Refreshing from all this heavy smog recently.

They look the same age as the wall to me. I would like to know their purpose too.

It's a horse corral?

My vote is for fort or garrison barracks. I don't think anyone would go to the effort to build something like that up there if they weren't part of the Ming Army...