The Badaling Great Wall is located in the north of Yanqing County, Beijing City, which is the most representative of Great Walls in Ming Dynasty. It is included in the United Nations World Cultural Heritage List.
The wall typically shows the grandeur and precipitous style. As a barrier of Beijing City, the wall is very precipitous, extending south to north with high mountains. On both sides of the the Great Wall are filled with steep cliffs and crags, with two words natural barrier written by the ancient calligrapher which reveals the importance of the military location.
The well-known Badaling Great Wall is the first section to open for tourists. So far, there have been 372 foreign heads of state as well as a large number of influential men in the world climbing onto the wall, such as Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher, Gorbachev, Elizabeth and so on.
The Great Wall is divided into two parts, namely, the east and the west, with Shaanxi Province as the dividing line. The east of the wall is reinforced with bricks and rocks; while the west is a rammed earth construction,with about 5.3 meters high on average. The most imposing and best preserved parts are walls of Badaling and Mutianyu, which are not far from Beijing City.
The Badaling Great Wall is in a height of 7.8 meters and a width of 6.5 meters.On the top exist a large number of ramparts, embrasures, peep-holes and apertures,as well as gutters with gargoyles to drain rain-water. With a rampart of 5.8 meters, the great wall is wide enough for five horses to gallop abreast. There are also two-storied watch-towers on the wall with approximately 400-meters. The ground floor is for storage of grains, fodders, military equipment as well as gunpowders; while the top floor is used for observing enemy movements.
As cultural relics, the Badaling Great Wall falls into not only China but also into the world.It is the largest construction with long history and culture, attracting visitors all over the world.