Panjiakou Great Wall

After visting Baiyangyu Great Wall, we head to Panjiakou Great Wall, about 100km to the northeast of Baiyangyu Great Wall.

We first take a 50km drive westward to Santunying Town, where we get off the New Sanwu Road and continue to drive 50km north towards Panjiakou Reservoir where the famous Panajiakou Underwater Great Wall is located.

Historically Sanyingtun was once the general garrison and commanding center of the important military Jizhen Town led by Qi Jiguang. Sanyingtun is only about 30km south of both Panjiakou Pass Great Wall and Xifengkou Pass Great Wall.

In 1568, General Qi Jiguang stationed at Sanyingguan and commanded the security of the border for the reinforcement of the Great Wall from Shanhaiguan Pass to Badaling Great Wall and Juyongguan Great Wall.

At sunset we reach the principal dam of Panjiakou Reservoir, the largest of this kind in Hebei Province. The dam is located in Qianxi County of Tangshan City in Hebei.

The dam is 107.5m high and 1040m long. Panjiakou Reservoir has a capacity of 2,930,000,000 m3 and surface area of 67 km2. The main purpose of the reservoir is to provide water for the cities of Tianjin and Tangshan. The dam is also capable of flood control and its power plant has a capacity of 420 MW.

The first stage construction of Panjiakou Reservoir started in 1971 and finished in 1985. Then the second stage began in the same year of 1985 and completed in 1993. The Panjiakou Reservoir has submerged the town of Panjiakou and some sections of the Great Wall.

The submerged sections of the wall went through the pass and the part of the Wall on the low hills are also submerged. If during the drought season and the reservoir has less water, you will see the underwater Great Wall, which has become a tourist scene, attracting a great number of tourists and photographers.

To snap the pictures of the Panjiakou Great Wall at sunrise, we decide to rent a speedboat to ferry us to the farmhouse at the foot of Panjiakou Great Wall for an overnight stay.

An ex-farmer, Mr. Liu now owns a speedboat living on tourism centered on Panjikou Resevoir and Panjiaklou Great Wall.

Mr.Liu says it only takes a few minutes to get to the farmhouse. He continues to say the total length of the watercourse of Panjiakou Reservoir is 70km!

But only 10% of the watercourse is located within his county -Qianxi County in Tangshan City and the rest belongs to Chengde City in the same province – Hebei Province. Panjiakou Great Wall ( the section which we are going to visit ) is the dividing line between Qianxi County of Tangshan City and Chengde city.

We set the alarm clock at 5:00 am and the sun is supposed to appear at 5:30am. A bad sleep with several wake-ups. At 5:0am we leave our bedroom and enter the courtyard outside.

To our pleasant surprise, a round and bright moon hanging high in the sky over the mountains and reservoir.

We climb on the north section of Panjiakou Great Wall and the wall is dilapidated and overgrown. Standing on the first fort, I look at the farmhouse below.

The Panjiankou Great Wall Pass is almost totally submerged. There are two farmhouses on the small peninsula protruding from the hill and the Great Wall at our feet. Some sections of the Wall are underwater.