If you look carefully at the recent published Great Wall photographic works, you will quickly find that most of the pictures are taken from Jiankou Great Wall. Due to its unique style, steep mountains and beautiful scenery, Jiankou Great Wall has become a photographic hotspot and also a hot travel destination these days. 'Jiankou', is translated as 'Arrow Nock' in English, because the shape of the mountain is like an arrow, with the collapsed ridge opening as its arrow nock.

Located in the mountain ridge of Xizhazi Village, about 30km (19 miles) to Huairou County in Beijing, Jiankou Great Wall was an important section of the wall in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). Owing to the need for renovation, the wall is regarded as one of the most dangerous sections of the Ming's wall. It connects to Mutianyu Great Wall in the east and joins Huanghuacheng Great Wall in the west. From east to north, the wall zigzags 9.3 miles from 'The Ox Horn Edge Wall' to 'The Nine-Eye Tower' via 'The Beijing Knot'. Compared with Mutianyu Great Wall, the mountain is higher and steeper, while compared with Simatai Great Wall, it is more winding and varied. It was built from the local material - dolomite. The large pieces of white rock make the wall striking to the eye at a distance.

There are many famous sections of Jiankou Great Wall, such as 'The Nine-Eye Tower', an important command post during the ancient wars. It has three layers, and there are nine holes which look like nine eyes on each side. 'The Beijing Knot' is the meeting point for three walls coming from different directions. 'The Sky Stair', is a precipitous stair whose angle of elevation is 70 to 80 degrees. It leads to 'The Eagle Flies Facing Upward', a watch tower built on the lofty peaks. It is so dangerous that even eagles have to fly facing upward to reach the top. 'Zhengbei Tower' is the right place to appreciate the beauty of the sunrise and the sunset

If you want to see Jiankou, I highly recommend you go to Xizhazi village rather than accessing it from the south side. If you access Jiankou from the south, it’s a pretty long and steep climb and you will arrive at the lowest point of this area of the Wall. From there you can’t safely go too far to the east, so following the Great Wall you only have the choice of going to the west. The other choice you have is to proceed down the other side of the mountain, and then you will be in Xizhazi anyway. It’s much easier to start there and you get a lot more options. I believe that the best destinations at Jiankou are Zhengbeilou (sharp north tower) or Jiuyanlou (nine eyed tower). Zhengbeilou will be to your east and therefore you must walk down to the road and bypass the very dangerous section of Jiankou, and then back up another trail to get there. Jiuyanlou is to the west, but it’s much too far to walk from the south side of Jiankou along the Great Wall all the way to Jiuyanlou and expect to return the same day. But from Xizhazi you can easily access either place or even both in the same day if you wish.