"Shanhaiguan passage" translated from traditional Chinese means "passage between the mountains and the sea." The name of the fortification was not in vain, because it is located in the narrowest place between the Liaodong Bay of the Yellow Sea and the Yanshan mountain system.
Shanhaiguan Pass. History
Shanhaiguan Fortress is by far the best preserved compared to other similar passages in the Great Wall of China. Despite the fact that the complex of fortification buildings appeared here in the late period of the Ming Dynasty, at the end of the XVl century, this narrow strip along the sea acquired its strategic importance long before General Qi Jiguan, who was involved in the construction of the fortress and military city.
For the first time, the Shanhaiguan passage was taken under protection in the 15th century, when General Xu Da, one of the most famous commanders of the Ming empire, established the first checkpoint in this area.
In the following centuries, the passage only strengthened, expanded and was completed. Around it formed a whole fortified area with a military city and several outposts. Thus, the passage became one of the most fortified in the system of defensive structures that separated the central part of China from the north.
The Qing Age and the Great Wall of China
In modern times, when the last imperial Qing dynasty established itself on the Chinese throne, the Shanhangyuan passage acquired special significance and received the unofficial name of "the key to the capital."
The special value of the passage during the Manchu dynasty is due to the fact that representatives of this kind waged numerous wars with neighbors, unsuccessfully trying to expand their sphere of influence in Central Asia and the lands located north of the territory of modern Mongolia.
