Dajingmen — the Great Gate — is the most important surviving section of the Great Wall in the Zhangjiakou area, a brick archway roughly 13 metres high and 9 metres wide built in 1644 at the start of the Qing dynasty. It marks the point where a key mountain pass opens onto the Mongolian Plateau, and for two centuries it was one of the busiest trade gateways in northern China. Tea, silk, and silver moved north through the gate; furs, livestock, and Russian goods moved south.
The gate itself is more understated than the dramatic clifftop sections of the Wall near Beijing, but its scale and the context of the old commercial quarter below it give it a different kind of weight. A small museum near the gate documents the history of the tea and silk trade. The surrounding area, known as the upper town, retains some of its old lane structure and courtyard houses, and walking north from the gate toward the hillside gives good views back over the city.