The Great Wall is dotted with hundreds if not thousands of towers where soldiers can take shelter. These towers serve multiple purposes like planning, defense and temporary residence. As such, some of these towers have their own character and design. One of these towers is the Little Jinshan Tower. I was surprised to know that the towers actually have names. A lot of them do have names but not all of them. Naturally, only the significant ones get names.
The Little Jinshan Tower was built the people from the Jiangzhe area, which is actually very far from Beijing. They were brought all the way here to build the Great Wall. Because of this, the soldiers have taken it to themselves to name the tower after Jinshan Island in Zhenjiang from their hometown to show how much they miss it. The tower itself is two storeys high and it even has a unique roof on top. Visitors to the Great Wall will take years to observe the unique characteristics of each tower and it is truly fascinating to know the stories behind them.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/JinshanlingGreatWall.kmz} zoom=19]