Our own Jiaojiehe House:

• Home page

• From the west

• From the north-west

• From the south-east

• Interior shell

• Breakfast room

• Master bedroom

• Wooden heart

• More of the interior

• The garden
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The original house

• Adding the personal touch

Jiaojiehe environs:

• Jiaojiehe valley and the Great Wall

• More local views

• Winter to summer 2006

• Dream Village House
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• The Phoenix
  (updated 6th Sep 2009)

• Paradise Lost
  (10th Sep 2007)

• Money talks (2007)
  (30th Nov 2007)

• Beauty and the Beast
  (26th Oct 2007)

• Blot on the Landscape (updated 30th May 2009)

• Money talks (2008)
  (20th Nov 2008)

• Jiaojiehe Awards 2009
  (30th May 2009)

• Private Great Wall Hike
  (9th Aug 2009)

Beyond Jiaojiehe village the concrete road heads up the valley, where there are two more smaller villages.

There are very few traditional houses occupied here, most are empty or have been redeveloped. In some case it is villagers from lower down who have sold their houses and used the money to build themselves a new (and better) home which previously they could only have dreamed about:

There are some other houses which are better described as mansions (yes, that is a swimming pool):

I am not quite sure in what category I would place this monstrosity to be, it's not a mansion, more a total blot on the landscape:

Insensitive? Why should anyone ever describe an over-moneyed cretin who erects such a building in a place like Jiaojiehe in such gentle terms? The owner is obviously a complete moron. Worse, it overlooks the remaining traditional part of the village, but even this house is not quite what it seems as the owner has been paid to redecorate it for the shooting of a TV soap opera!

In the last year or so, the road has been extended beyond the villages for some 2-3 km, just what is going on is not always apparent but a lot of money has been spent by the various parties involved. It is said that when completed, this building will become a furniture factory/workshop(!).

In what was near virgin countryside when I walked here in 2005 there are new buildings which are said to be part of a 'club', this is the smaller of the two...

The most recent road extension was incomplete when I visited in September 2007:

Undoubtedly it will be concreted over in due course and at the moment it finishes where the valley narrows:

And this is the sign erected in August 2007....

Literal translations should always be treated warily in China but it appears to say:

Natural environment agricultural technical model garden area.
(Beijing military agricultural new technology experimental foundation)

The latest rumour is that the area concerned will be the next (and last) 10km of the valley, what is now effectively a wilderness area. You can trust the Chinese to make a good job of it...