Dingbian Great Wall Location - Coordinates: 37°35'39" North 107°35'21" East.
- Dingbian (1) Directions & Introduction -
This page was last updated: June 6, 2017
Great Wall of China in Shaanxi Province
Ningxia Province Map 1 - Geographic Map
A schematic overview of North-West China's Ningxia Province entire, delineating Provincial Borders and parts of neighboring Gansu- Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and North-Shaanxi Province. Includes Cities and Towns (shown by size), Main Monuments & landmarks, the flow of the yellow river in Ningxia Province, surrounding Gobi Desert area's (TengGer), Great Wall of China locations in Ningxia Province, Main Mountains (with Height), major highways, provincial railroads and main railroad-stations and main waterways & rivers. This Map further provides links to on site photos and information on Cities, Monuments and main transportation hubs of the wider Region.
Around Anbian, Zhuanjing and Dingbian Towns in Shaanxi Province and Yanchi in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region there used to be a well preserved section of the Great Wall of China standing in Guard against invasion from the Mongolian Gobi Desert to the North and beyond. In the past ages since its construction in the Ming Dynasty, it had been somewhat of a cultural barrier. North and beyond the Wall was basicly wild Territory, the Mu Us Desert with beyond the Gobi and Mongolia.
Not much has changed since the construction of the Great Wall section during the 15Th Century Ming Dynasty. Although in some area's in the Region the
shifting sands of Mu Us have advanced, forming new strips of sands, the southern edge - where Dingbian is located remains much the same. Generally speaking, though the intensity of human activity has been increasing in this area since the Ming Dynasty, the Mu Us Desert has not significantly expanded toward the southeast or southwest.
The sections remained through time in this far western corner of the Arid Northern Province. In October 1935 AD and throughout the winter into March of 1936 AD, the Great Wall of China in Shaanxi Province saw the arrival of the Red Armies on the final stretch of their "12.500 li March" (according to Mao Zedong). The Main Army arrived in their new Shaanxi Base through Wuqi Town (now Zhidan). In the Years following many small and a few larger battles would rage along the Great Wall more Eastward in Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces, seeing battles between Japanese and Communists as well as the Communist and the Nationalist.
Although land degradation in north Shaanxi is severe and this is one of the main area's where the infamous "yellow dust" sandstorms originate, the wall remained unscathed and untouched by the sand. Until the turn of the Millenium the Wall sections remained in healthy condition.
The three damaged sections of the Great Wall are located adjacent to the three towns of Anbian, Zhuanjing and Dingbian in Shaanxi Province and were destroyed in order for the town to be connected to the new road. The three side-roads of the Jingbian-Wangquanliang Highway cut right through the Great Wall, creating three 30-40 meters wide openings in the wall and a road through each. According to the reporter of the Xi'an-based Chinese Business Review (Hua Shang Bao), before the activities of the construction
China Report - Map of the Great Wall during the Ming Dynasty
Satellite image of China and North-East Asia, with a super-imposed schematic Map of the location and Path of the Great Wall as constructed during the Reign of the Ming Dynasty. Included for reference are City names, geographical features of landscape, Names and locations of Passes on the Great Wall of China.
In Shaanxi Province there are essentially three remaining continues sections of The Great Wall of China that can be visited. The First of these sections runs from Yulin in the far north of Shaanxi Province where there is a Fortress and walled town, to the south-west and towards Jingbian Town. This Yulin-Jingbian section ends at some distance north-east of Jingbian and does not reach the Town.
second section. This is the Jingbian-Dingbian section that runs slowly North-Westward towards Dingbian.
The Third Section runs from Dingbian Town westward into the Ordos Desert,
Schematic Map depicting the multiple layers of the Great Wall of circling Beijing, then continuing into North Shanxi Province, passed YanMenGuan at Datong to PianGuan in the North-West Of Shanxi where it terminates at the Yellow River.The Great Wall continues westward through Shaanxi,Ningxia and Gansu Provinces.
companies the destroyed parts of the Great Wall were well preserved and in surprisingly good condition. The remaining Wall segments still reached a height of four meters and a width of 5-6 meters. According to the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics that took effect in 1992, construction around a cultural relic must be strictly examined to ensure that it will not cause any damage.
Considering the construction of the roads might damage the Great Wall, in March, the Culture and Sports Bureau of Dingbian County notified the construction companies, including the Shaanxi Road and Bridge Company, Yan'an Tongsheng Company and Yulin Tianyuan Company, to go through relevant measures before they started the project, according to Li Huanbing, a clerk with the Culture and Sports Bureau of Dingbian County. However, none of the above mentioned companies paid any attention to the issue.
So when the Culture and Sports Bureau of Dingbian County received the report from its counterpart in Yulin in late April, the Great Wall had already been cut through. Again the bureau contacted the construction companies but could not stop them. As a result, three sections of the Great Wall, 30 meters in Anbian, 35 meters in Zhuanjing, and 40 meters in Dingbian were destroyed.
As for this incident, the Culture and Sports Bureau of Dingbian County on May 12 made a decision to order the construction units to stop their work, pay a fine of 30,000 yuan and go through the procedures as soon as possible.
This severe incident attracted attention from the Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage, who immediately sent some experts to investigate the issue.
On June 1,2003 the Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage issued the document An Urgent Notice on the Cultural Relics Destruction in the Jingbian-Wangquanliang Highway Construction, which ordered the concerned companies to stop their construction work inside the Great Wall preservation area at once, and charged each of them a fine of 500,000 yuan. The 1.5 million yuan collected will be used for the repair and protection of the Great Wall.
As concerned Chinese citizens have since pointed out, oddly the local government that approved the project was not punished. In the aftermath the local departments concerned were asked to strengthen education on the Law on Protection of Cultural Relics, intensify punishment to violations and try every means to avoid such kind of incidents in the future.
More dangers have arisen, specifically for the Dingbian Great Wall as the West-East Gas Transmission Pipeline is scheduled to cut through the Great Wall of China somewhere near Dingbian. The 1250 kilometer Gas Pipeline was planned for in 2002 AD, and construction should have reached Dingbian by now (March 2009 AD). Expected to transport Gas between Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region and the Yangtse River Delta and the City of Shanghai in the South, the section involved will intersect the Wall, a problem which was discussed with the Dingbian Cultural Relics Bureau however for which no technical solution was announced in the public documents released on the planning.
Another development near Dingbian and Great Wall will be the brandnew Taiyuan-Zhongwei Railway, which will pass Dingbian on its way between the Capital of Shanxi Province in the East and Zhongwei, the fifth and last Great Wall of China location in Ningxia Autonomous Region. The new railroad however is not planned to intersect with the Great Wall and will only meet up with it along two short sections East and West of Dingbian.
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Satellite Image of a Yellow Dust Cloud (Sandstorm) emerging from the yellow river basin.
View of Great Wall of China ruins near Dingbian, North Shaanxi Province.
In a period when the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty had long been driven out, and the first 9 main passes on the Great Wall of China reinforced against their return, the construction of this new section of Wall must be seen as a move to further consolidation of territories. The Ningxia-North Shaanxi Great Wall was built to prevent enemies from attempting a sneak attack by arrising from the vast Ordos Desert absent of natural barriers. Since the 15Th Century, the Dingbian Great Wall has been in position to guard the lush green lands of Shaanxi Province to the South-East and the vulnerable Yellow River Valley and Silk Road crossing-point Lanzhou to the South-West.
A Full Google Earth Supported Map of Dingbian Village by Google.com.
The China Report introduced on Levels of its Online Publishing's in April of 2009, including The Great Wall of China.
Find Google Maps on nearly all Report & Photo Pages where appropriate and useful.
Adjacent Map gives direct access to Dingbian Village Map by Google Earth.
In 2003 however they were severely damaged by the construction of a road through the sections of Great Wall. Between the months April to early May 2003 when the road-building companies began the construction of three side-roads into Anbian, Zhuanjing and Dingbian without regards of the national historic relic of the Great Wall of China.
Illegally and without the permission from the local administration of cultural relics protection, some local construction companies built highways by breaking the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD-1644 AD), resulting in a near complete destruction of three sections of the Great Wall.