The Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai

The Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai

The Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai

The Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai is located about 10 kilometers east of the XiaosheTai Town government seat, built along the mid-northern slope of Mazong Mountain in the Yin Mountains range. The wall is entirely constructed from manually chiseled stone slabs and rocks, with a base width of 3 to 4 meters, a top width of 2 to 3 meters, and a height of 4 to 5 meters. There are beacon towers on the mountaintop. This stony stretch of the Great Wall resembles a giant dragon, emerging and disappearing amid the rugged mountain ranges, leaving visitors in awe. According to expert research, this section of the wall dates back to the Qin Dynasty and has been listed as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Deep within the Yin Mountains in western Inner Mongolia lies a lesser-known section of the Qin Dynasty Great Wall — the Qin Great Wall at XiaosheTai. It is part of the western section of the GuYang Qin Great Wall, a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit, with a total length of approximately 250 kilometers, situated within the territory of XiaosheTai Town, Wulate Front Banner.

After unifying the six states, Emperor Qin Shi Huang dispatched the famed general Meng Tian to campaign against the Xiongnu in the north. He mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to build the Great Wall, connecting the northern defensive walls of the Qin, Zhao, and Yan states from the Warring States period, and then repairing and reinforcing them. This resulted in the construction of the Great Wall stretching over 5,000 kilometers from LinTao in the west to Liaodong in the east, built to protect the northern agricultural regions from invasions by nomadic Xiongnu cavalry.