Miyun District 密云区

Setting and landscape

Mountains close the district on the east, north and west, with old Great Wall running along the ridges; the middle is low ground and an alluvial plain opens to the south-west. Miyun borders Xinglong (兴隆县), Chengde (承德县) and Luanping (滦平县) counties of Hebei (河北) to the east and north, and Huairou (怀柔区), Shunyi (顺义区) and Pinggu (平谷区) districts to the west and south. Because it sits on the route from North China towards the north-east and Inner Mongolia, it was called the "lock and key of the capital" (京师锁钥).

The reservoir straddles the Chao River (潮河) and the Bai River (白河). Work began on 1 September 1958 and was completed in September 1960; Tsinghua University (清华大学) designed it. The district government gives its largest water surface as 188 square kilometres, and Beijing's city master plan names Miyun the capital's most important water-source protection area.

What to see

The Simatai Great Wall (司马台长城) is described by the district government as the only stretch of the ancient wall that keeps the original appearance of the Ming wall; the architectural historian Luo Zhewen (罗哲文) called it the best of China's Great Wall. Beneath it, Gubei Water Town (古北水镇) is a resort town beside the Yuanyang Lake reservoir (鸳鸯湖水库), with 430,000 square metres of hillside courtyard buildings in Ming, Qing and Republican styles and dense canals rebuilt from the Tang River (汤河) system. Wooden boats run from the visitor centre to the foot of the wall.

Food and local products

Since the Ming and Qing, local people have summed up Miyun's farm produce as the "Eight Treasures of Miyun" (密云八珍), an informal grouping never officially rated. The usual list is Yanshan chestnuts (燕山板栗), Xitiangezhuang golden-thread jujubes (西田各庄金丝小枣), Fenzhuang walnuts (坟庄核桃), Huangtukan pears (黄土坎鸭梨), Jinpoluo millet (金叵罗小米), Dachengzi red Xiao pears (大城子红肖梨), Dongshaoqu yellow plums (东邵渠御皇李子) and Dongzhi toon shoots (东智香椿).

The chestnuts grow mainly north of the reservoir around Gaoling (高岭), Bulaotun (不老屯), Fengjiayu (冯家峪) and Shicheng (石城), and Miyun was allowed to use the Yanshan chestnut geographical indication in 2008. The jujubes nearly died out after disease struck in the 1970s; in 2010 Miyun brought more than 20,000 seedlings back from Cangzhou (沧州), which had taken jujube seedlings from Miyun in 1965.

Getting oriented

The district government puts Miyun 45 kilometres from urban Beijing and 35 kilometres from Beijing Capital International Airport. The Beijing–Chengde Expressway (京承高速), the Beijing–Shenyang high-speed railway (京沈高铁) and suburban railway line S5 all serve the district.

Highlights

• Simatai Great Wall 司马台长城: Described by the district government as the only section that keeps the original appearance of the Ming wall.
• Gubei Water Town 古北水镇: Resort town of Ming, Qing and Republican-style courtyard buildings and canals at the foot of the Simatai wall.
• Miyun Reservoir 密云水库: Built from 1958 to 1960 on the Chao and Bai rivers; the district's centre.
• Yanshan chestnuts 燕山板栗: First of the traditional Eight Treasures of Miyun; geographical indication granted for Miyun in 2008.