Eight Passes / Badaguan


The Badaguan ("Eight Passes") is famous for its gardens and roads. It lies in the east of Qingdao City in
Shandong Province, the Taiping Mountain around its north side and the Huanghai Sea is towards the south.

Scattered among the costal flora and fauna, along with many varieties of trees such as peaches, crabapples, pine
trees and ginkgoes, are more than 200 villas of exotic styles. Also known as, the World Architecture Museum,
Badaguan due to the large numbers of European villas that criss-cross this scenic area is sometimes referred to
as “little Switzerland.”

This scenic area was once a place where people from more than twenty countries, such as Germany, the United
States of America, Russia, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Japan and etc., constructed
buildings in each of their unique national styles. 

The Badaguan is a general designation of several crisscrossing roads. The eight roads are all named after eight strategic passes of the famous
Great Wall in China. They are Shanhaiguan, Zhengyangguan, Jiayuguan, Wushengguan, Zijingguan, Ningwuguan, Juyongguan and Shaoguan.
The terrain of these eight roads is undulant.

Since Ming and Qing Dynasty, the people in Qingdao likes to plant different kinds of flowers that blooming in different seasons on both sides of the
roads, such as crape myrtle, Chinese flowering crabapple, green peach and cedar. When the flowers bloom, all roads, even pedestrians and the
vehicles are embraced with the sea of flowers.

Long ago there was a poem describing the Badaguan and the meaning is that in the Badaguan there are flowers every season and there are trees
everywhere. The proud locals often said that whoever comes to the Badaguan, will never lose his way because the flowers and trees are the best
guide.

You will not believe that you will see a group of modern villa in the middle of the historic sites. Those western
style buildings are built according to the terrain and the mountain. They are over 80 exquisite buildings
crossing the eight roads. The red walls, green tiles red flowers and green leaves are brilliant, they form this
special scenery.