Lijiaguguan

Chinese: 李家谷关
Pinyin: Lǐ jiā gǔ guān
English: Li's home valley pass
Coordinates: 40°24'40"N 118°22'41"E

I unintentionally re-visited this part of the Great Wall yesterday.

It is NOT Xifengkou, although it is somewhat close to it.

This part of the Great Wall is called Lijaguguan Lǐjiāgǔguān (李家谷关). In the two years since I've gone there they have installed information stones and much of the wall is now cleared of the brambly bushes that plagued my last visit. There are also clear markers on how to get to the starting point.

Still no tickets to buy, but there seems to be a ticket house under construction in front of the village.

Looks like there needs to be a new sub-forum created! I'll post more information and pictures there.

Sorry, I don't have GPS coordinates, but within the next few days I'll have the pictures ready and will write out how to get there via public transport.

The reason I thought it was Xifengkou last time is because the taxi driver took me there, I saw the Great Wall in the distance and thought OK. But, it always bothered me that I never saw the part of it touching the water...

Fast forward to yesterday, and this time I took a long distance bus. They dropped me off, I saw a sign that said 'Xifengkou Broadsword Garden Park' and thought 'hey, this is it.' A 20-30 minute walk later, I was in the same village as two years ago.

This time I asked around, and it turns out Xifengkou is within the area. To be more precise, I found out it's better to refer to Xifengkou as 水下长城 Shuǐ xià cháng chéng which helps differentiate it from the Xifengkou Broadsword Garden Park (喜峰雄关大刀园 Xǐ fēng xióng guān dàdāo yuán).

At this time of year, there are no boats operating to take tourists to see the Xifengkou Great Wall. The water level is also too high and so you wouldn't be able to see it, from what the locals told me.

I've attached a picture that contains a map of the area which shows the proximity of the Great Wall sections.

Directions: From the long distance bus station in Tangshan (唐山) or Fengrun 丰润) (which is the location of Tangshan North Train Station), take a bus to Qian Xi (迁西) (it takes roughly two hours to arrive in Qian Xi from either location). From Qian Xi Bus Station, tell the ticket booth you want to go to Xifengkou (since they most likely will not be familiar with Lijiaguguan Great Wall). The bus ride is roughly an hour long (maybe a 40 kilometer drive). Arriving at your destination, you'll see a sign that says Xifengkou Broadsword Garden &mdash go down that little road. Walk for maybe 20-30 minutes and you'll arrive at Lijiaguguan village. From there it's apparent how to get to the entrance of the Great Wall.

There are no trains going directly to Qian Xi, nor are there are buses that go directly to the Great Wall sites (afaik). Do not let taxi drivers mislead you saying there are no buses that go to the Great Wall…yes, the buses don't stop at the front gate, but there are buses that go through the area. If you want to take a taxi, keep in mind the distance is roughly 40 kilometers when haggling.

As of this writing, there are no tickets for Lijiaguguan, although I did notice construction of a building that looked like a ticket office/information center.
When I went here two years ago, there was no information whatsoever about this section. However, many stone tablets with information about the wall have been erected since then as well as direction pointers.

The view from the top is astounding on a clear day and the blocked off sections of Lijiaguguan are overrun with bramble bushes; the pictures speak for themselves. If you want to go to the Xifengkou Great Wall, the locals refer to it more commonly as 水下长城 Shuǐ xià cháng chéng to differentiate it from the Xifengkou Broadsword Garden.

I've uploaded an album with 45 pictures, here's the link:
https://imgur.com/a/OiCwA#KGZ0KFy