The Great Wall of China is one of my bucket list, go-to places on earth. It is one of the current seven wonders of the world. It is the only man-made structure on earth that is visible from the moon. It holds the current world record for the longest wall on the planet.
Now, there are actually many sections of the Great Wall of China to chose from. The most tourist-ready (conveniently accessible with public transportation bus, restaurants all around and easily walkable) and popular area is Badaling, which means that that area is enormously packed. If you are not the type of person who wants to rub shoulders and elbows with other people, best avoid this section, especially during the holidays. A woman once died in the Badaling section after being accidentally knocked over by another tourist.
Then there’s Mutianyu, which many said to be the beautiful part of the Great Wall of China. There are many renovated portions of the wall. Although it is not as crowded as the Badaling great wall, it could get crowded with tourists.
I chose Jinshanling, which many regard to be just as beautiful and many sections are original. Now, I’m a tourist who likes to see beautiful places but I place more value in the original. The Jinshanling wall is far from the city, I didn’t want to be bothered with the transportation or to be updated which sections of the great wall would be open at the time of my visit.
I booked the tours from The Great Wall Adventure Club, from Simatai to Jinshanling, for 494 yuan. It comes with a transportation and lunch (yey!). I booked it 3 days before the date of the tour. They asked to meet me at the Chaoyangmen Station Exit A at 7:20 am. I came there earlier, for fear that I would be left behind. The guide was 30 minutes late, but she explained that Beijing traffic could be so unpredictable. She led me to a minivan with maybe around 12 others , we headed north. Away from the city, Beijing has a lot of greenery. Mountains and trees.
After 3 hours, we arrived at Jinshanling base and we were led to a coffee shop with a map, and we were oriented on our route.
So we were offered two choices: 1) To ride the cable car to halfway the route (enter the great wall at the Small Jinshan tower, skipping 5 watch towers) 2) to walk from the Jinshanling base all the way to the East five window tower. I chose no. 2, as I did not go all the way to the Great wall of China to ride a cable car! The guide (who is going to do no. 1 laughs), said it was roughly a 7 km walk. Now, if you chose the cable car halfway up, it does not land directly on the great wall, you need to climb up about 30 minutes to reach The Great Wall.
We started walking straight up, just straight up. We met 4 or 5 chinese tourists climbing the wall with umbrellas. First we encountered a white statue of a man on a horse. For a moment I thought he looked like Genghis Khan, but it’s very hard to tell chinese people apart. Apparently it is a statue of Qi Jiguang, a Chinese military. Nearby was our First Tower
Many parts of the great wall are unrestored. The stairs on the great wall is uncalculated, the heights of the steps are randomly decided so always be careful.
There are parts of the great wall with no stairs at all, it’s like a ramp. I’m so glad my running shoes make good friction to keep me upright. It was the worst time to discover how scared of heights I really am. Lie, I am afraid of heights and I know it.
My hiking buddy is a Vietnamese who lives in Germany. I think it is safer to hike with someone in case something happens. This is a great great wall in the middle of nowhere.
I took this picture after she told me (in this face): “where do you get all your energy?”
By our penultimate tower, she was so close to giving up and started to feel nauseous. Then she told me she only had bananas for breakfast. I told her I carbo-loaded yesterday, and ate a whole Peking duck all by myself!!!
One of my biggest regrets is climbing the great wall with only 500 ml of water. I wish I brought more. One of my fellow hikers bought his lifestraw, and proudly he said he can even drink mud. Lifestraw filters water. I did not see any body of water along the great wall. Maybe he could drink his pee.
Upon reaching the East five window tower, we took the stairs down the exit.
I would want to travel other portions of the great wall in the future. Maybe in a cooler season.
- I enjoyed my Simatai- Jinshanling experience and I recommend it! 5/5
- Bring more than 500 ml of water (maybe a liter)
- Eat plenty of breakfast, but carbo load the day before!
xxxXXX, Gayle
When she gets lost 
Great post 🙂
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