The First Pier of the Great Wall.

After visiting Jiayuguan Pass, we took the shuttle bus back to the entrance of the scenic area and saw a long line of tourists waiting for the shuttle bus. We were glad that we came to the pass early in the morning to avoid the peak hours. The other two small attractions included in the ticket, the First Pier of the Great Wall and the Overhanging Great Wall, require you to drive there yourself. They are about ten kilometers away from the pass. Our first stop was the First Pier of the Great Wall, which was called Taolai River Pier in ancient times. The road was barren and desolate, but there was a river that had not dried up, winding along the wilderness. The shuttle bus to the First Pier of the Great Wall costs CNY 12 per person. The biggest attraction of the scenic area is actually a section of the pier that is fenced off. The piers were usually built on mountain tops, high hills, and open areas that were easy to look out from, with one pier every 5 kilometers or so. The structure is an independent high platform, 3–4 meters higher than the Great Wall. The materials for building the piers were all locally sourced, and the pier of Taolai River was made of rammed earth mixed with sand, with a thickness of 0.15 meters. This is the southernmost pier of the western Great Wall of Jiayuguan Pass, and also the westernmost pier of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. It was built in the 18th year of the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1539 AD) under the supervision of Li Han, the military governor of Suzhou, and is 7.5 kilometers north of the pass. The pier stands on a cliff near the Taolai River, 56 meters high. There are 54 piers along the Great Wall of Jiayuguan Pass, crisscrossing each other, looking out for each other, serving as strongholds for guarding the Great Wall and tools for communicating and transmitting messages. As the First Pier of the Great Wall, Taolai River Pier played a pioneering role in the beacon alarm. Its west side is open, and the enemy's movements are all in sight, so it is responsible for transmitting intelligence on the enemy's situation from the south of the pass to the Qilian Mountains. It was in use until the mid-Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.