The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 brought the last battles ever fought on the Great Wall, transforming ancient defensive works into modern combat positions.
The Race to Beijing
When the Boxer Rebellion erupted, an Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign forces marched from Tianjin to Beijing to relieve besieged foreign legations. Their route took them through the Huangyaguan and Gubeikou passes — sections of the Great Wall that had not seen combat in 250 years.
The Battle at the Wall
Qing Dynasty forces, reinforced by Boxer militia, fortified the Gubeikou pass. On August 12, 1900, Japanese troops of the alliance attacked the wall. The fighting was fierce — the Qing defenders used the Ming-era watchtowers as machine gun nests, and the foreign forces had to scale the wall under fire.
Aftermath
The fall of the wall defenses led directly to the capture of Beijing and the flight of the Empress Dowager Cixi. The Great Wall, which had protected China for two millennia, could not protect against modern artillery. The battle marked the end of the wall’s role as a military structure and the beginning of its transformation into a cultural symbol.