Banchangyu Village, Cao Ying Town, Funing County, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, is a very important pass of the Ming Great Wall brick kiln group near Shanhaiguan, the first pass of Wan Li Great Wall. A 3.5-kilometer-long and well-preserved Ming Great Wall spans the dangerous peak in the north of the village.
This rare Ming Great Wall brick kiln group was excavated by local villagers in the winter of 2002 under the command of Qinhuangdao cultural relics experts for nearly two months. Brick kilns are covered with cultivated soil, clay and burnt soil from top to bottom. Kilns are divided into dragon kiln, horseshoe kiln and Niujiaojian kiln, and the diameter of kiln mouth ranges from 3.5 meters to 6 meters. Most of the bricks used to build the Great Wall are kept in it. The brick is 36 cm long, 17 cm wide, 9 cm thick and weighs about 10.5 kg. Among them, 24 kilns are all bricks, each kiln has 20 layers of bricks and more than 5,000 bricks. According to experts' analysis, these are spare Great Wall brick kilns and the earliest brick kilns discovered in China so far. At the same time, 70 stone mines, 5 stone cannons, 3 iron spears, 6 lime kilns and 10 iron smelting furnaces were found in the Ming Great Wall brick kiln. A cave about 200 meters deep has also been discovered, and more than 50 kilograms of animal fossils have been excavated in the cave.
Banchangyu Village: Banchangyu Village