Features of the Mutianyu Great Wall Section

Dimensions: 2½ km (1½ miles) long, 7 or 8 meters high and 4 or 5 meters wide Densely spaced watchtowers: 23 watchtowers, about one every hundred meters on an ascending mountain ridge. Rebuilt according to the Ming design with slabs of granite Both sides of the wall have a crenellated parapet so that soldiers could fire arrows at enemy at both sides. This is very rare on other sections of wall. Under the westernmost towers, on the side of a grassy ridge, is the 200-meter-long phrase 忠于毛主席 — ‘loyalty to Chairman Mao’ (zhōng yú Máo Zhǔxí /jong yoo maoww joo-sshee/). Chairman Mao once wrote: ‘If you don’t get to the Great Wall you’re not a good man.’ (不到长城非好汉) So touring the Great Wall could be said to be showing loyalty to Chairman Mao.