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New deal for commercial flights over the Great Wall

Sightseers can rise above the crowds and get a bird's eye view of the Badaling section by taking a spin with Capital Helicopter on a single-engine, six-seat AS350B3 Squirrel helicopter. Tours start at Badaling Airport and last about 15 minutes...

July 06, 2011
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Great Wall forests scorched in blaze

Police are investigating after a blaze close to the iconic Great Wall destroyed 33 hectares of forest and fruit plantations...

  May 05, 2011
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Qinghai finds Great Wall remains

Archaeologists found in Qinghai Province new Great Wall relics, including the wall's body, beacon towers, so on in the recently-finished Great Wall Resource Examination...

March 22, 2011
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Great Wall, Hutong listed in the must-see places in the world

On March 8, Reuters listed 25 places in the world to see before they change forever, where the "Real" Great Wall of China and Beijing's Hutong Communities are on the list...

March 14, 2011
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The long and changing road to Jiayuguan

2008-01-11

Of all the transformations I have seen on this return journey along the Great Wall, perhaps none are collectively greater than in the province of Gansu, particularly Jiayuguan, the western end of the Ming Great Wall.

The long and changing road to Jiayuguan

William Lindesay reaches the Jiayuguan Fortress in Gansu province after four weeks on the road. Piao Tiejun

When I alighted from train No 69 here 20 years ago, alone with a small backpack, harboring my audacious ambition to trek along the Wall, the trip had taken 59 hours from Beijing. Now I am told it takes just 34 hours.

Once out of the station, I trudged along dusty roads and discovered this was indeed a desert city.

Today's Jiayuguan is also up to speed, an oasis with tree-lined streets, an impressive sports stadium and booming tourism, proudly promoting itself as China's smallest city with a population of "only" 300,000 people. It is here that you see the policy of Xibu Kaifa, or western development, is for real.

Jiayuguan of old seems far away now, but I can still recall the grubby eateries around the main traffic circle - although there was no traffic then. I could not speak Chinese, so ordering was a problem. I felt relieved to have found a few peppers and eggs, thankfully avoiding the fly-infested pork offering. The dietary choices today are astounding, but I opted for a local favorite: beef noodle soup at Da Huzi's (Big Beard's) Noodle House, run by a friendly Hui Muslim who serves the best bowl of this delicacy outside its hometown of Lanzhou.

In the late afternoon, I drove toward the fortress. Instead of heading for the interior, I took a track leading across the open desert. I have approached it many times this way on foot, and it is always a thrill: this time because we had driven all the way from our Beijing home. Every time I am here, words written by a Briton come to mind.

"The cart bumped mercilessly over the loose stones of the dismal plain", wrote Mildred Cable of her approach in the 1930s, "and each slow mile brought the outline of the fort into clear relief."

Most of my route to the city of Jiayuguan had been quite the opposite. Miles had sped past swiftly and smoothly as I cruised along National Highway No 312, which runs the length of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu province. Only this final furlong was bumpy - a brief reminder of what desert travel of yesteryear was like.

Now the reward stood before me: the fortress perched atop a plateau, taking me back in time to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and in my book one of the finest sights on the entire Great Wall.

I shot a roll of film in the golden evening, stopping to watch dust devils spin over the desert. It was not quite the end of our road. We had events planned in Jiayuguan before continuing further west, in search of a much older Great Wall.

(China Daily 01/11/2008 page6)

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