Within the Huangyaguan complex, the section known as the Widow's Wall has a particular atmosphere. The name comes from the legend that it was built by the widows of soldiers who died during construction — a story that may be apocryphal, but which has accumulated weight over centuries of retelling. The wall here is narrower and the stonework somewhat different in character from the main military sections, lending it a distinctive quality that most visitors notice even without knowing the story.
The Widow's Wall sits within the Taipingzhai section, which also includes an unusual labyrinth structure — a series of interconnecting passages and chambers built into the wall that has no clear parallel elsewhere on the Great Wall and whose exact purpose remains debated. The labyrinth is small but genuinely puzzling.