Bagua City

Bagua City

Bagua City, also known as Huangya Zhengguan, gets its name from the "Bagua Street" within the city. It served as the location of government offices and storage facilities along the Great Wall. To the east lies Ju River, and to the west stands Wangmaoding Mountain. Built following the contours of the mountain terrain, it has an irregular cleaver-like shape, consisting of three parts from east to west: the barbican, the outer city, and the inner city. The city walls on the east, west, and south sides feature wide thoroughfare gates and gate towers, while the north wall, for defensive purposes, has no gates—instead, the North Pole Pavilion is built on the wall platform. The ground level of the inner and outer cities differs by 4 meters, and there is one Zhenyan Gate at each of the southern and northern ends to connect the inside and outside. The streets inside the city do not follow a grid layout but instead consist of dozens of dead-end alleys, through alleys, and offset T-junctions, collectively known as "Bagua Street." Strolling through it gives a sense of bewilderment and is rich in mystery. Restored in 1987, the city is laid out according to the eight trigrams: Qian, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kan, Kun, and Dui. The "Huangya Pass Administration Office" at the city center was converted into the Great Wall Museum. The Qian trigram area features a stele forest of calligraphy by hundred generals and various scholars, as well as a stele forest of Mao Zedong’s poetry. The barbican houses a hall displaying carved bamboo couplets, and the remaining buildings have been turned into the Huangya Mountain Villa Hotel.