main road from the Ordos. It is some ninety feet in height and surrounded 
by a high wall. There are three storeys: the first a solid block of masonry 
about thirty feet square; the second and third similar, but lessening in size. 
Access to the second storey is gained by a stairway inside the lowest, but the 
steps from this to the top are on the outside. From here a splendid birdseye 
view of the desert is obtainable—countless sandhills stretching away north 
and south to the horizon; in the near distance two affluents of the Yii-lin Ho, 
their banks marked out by elms and willows. The sandhills assume varying 
hues of pink and yellow, swept from time to time by a darker patch of mauve, 
the shadow of a drifting cloud. The delicacy of the colouring, remarkable at 
all times, becomes specially so at sunset. A peculiar phenomenon was noticed 
from the temple, the great sandbank that lies beyond the river taking on at 
night a deep red glow particularly noticeable in the moonlight. The Great 
Wall at this point, and indeed along the whole boundary-line between the 
Ordos and Shensi, is little more than a low ridge of earth. Its course, 
however, is easily distinguishable by the watch towers still existing at 
intervals of about three hundred yards. In many cases these’ are in admirable 
preservation, leading to the supposition that the Wall in this part was not 
itself faced with brick or stone. It seems possible that there were battlements 
of brick, but there is no indication of any further masonry. It has been 
suggested that the towers are of later date than the Wall, or that they alone 
have been kept in repair; but there is no good reason for either view, and 
certainly there is no trace of any repair whatever.* But so much has been 
written about this stupendous work that any further discussion or remarks 
here would be superfluous. 
An interesting visit was paid to a temple situated on the bank of the 
Yii-lin Ho, at the point where it cuts through the Wall. It is formed mainly 
by caves hewn out of the solid sandstone, which appears here as a massive 
outcrop. Opposite the temple, on the western bank of the river, are numerous 
epitaphs carved on the face of the cliffs in Chinese and Tartar characters, 
They are to the memory of officials and Mongol princes, whose sepulchres 
can be seen as deep excavations below. Photographs of the fort and temple, 
and of the Wall at various points, were secured. A series of astronomical 
observations of both sun and stars, reduced to the South Gate, seemed to 
indicate that the old Jesuit longitude is about twenty-eight miles out. 
* As a matter of historical interest, it may be mentioned that the Wall was repaired by Chien Shén, of the Ming 
dynasty (1465-87). 
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