A Great (Wall) Adventure

Note: I wrote this post last year for a competition and didn't use it, so thought I'd pop it here instead.

No-one who goes to Beijing should come home without having seen the Great Wall of China. However, as a consequence of everybody knowing that they need to see the Great Wall, the tourist sections are a crowded theme-park version of the original. Badaling, the most popular section of the wall for day trippers from Beijing, comes complete with cable cars. I knew that we were up for something more challenging: we had the time, and we were all capable of a decent amount of walking.

Initially we thought to climb and trek the Simatai section of the Great Wall – the lonely planet warned us we would need our arms free for climbing and there is a zip-line for descent (who doesn’t love a zip line?!). However, as luck would have it, on that gorgeous month of April, Simatai was closed for renovations.

We jumped on the internet and my boyfriend with long experience of reading my mind, found a tour operator offering a private hiking tour from Gubeikou to Jinshanling.

The tour started out reasonably early, Sam and Mitch my travel companions for the day meeting in the hotel lobby before jumping in a mini-van up to the site. After about 45 minutes driving – the last 10 of which were filled with thoughts of “oh god, no-one knows where we are!” we arrived at the base of the Gubeikou portion of the wall

And so the trek began. After a solid 10-20 minutes of uphill terrain, we set foot on the Great Wall. What a feeling to be standing on an original part of history. Gubeikuo, as our guide informed us in perfect English, has stood un-renovated for the past 600 years.

Definitely not the most accessible part of the wall.

We headed east along the wall for the next hour or so, constantly looking upwards and behind us for incredible vistas of the wall stretching as far as we could see in either direction. As the day continued and visibility increased we started to get some incredible photos.

After stopping for a photo opportunity and water break at one of the watch towers, our guide advised us we were to make our way off the wall now as we were approaching a military facility and needed to give it wide berth. We looked at each other “Wait a minute! Does this mean we have to leave the wall and go down the hill?” Yes, it did.

In the inevitable follow up, after following what can only be described as a goat track for the next hour, we then had to re-climb the hill to find the wall again. Having relocated the wall, and consumed a quick meal standing under a gorgeous wild fruit tree in full bloom, we again started walking along the wall, making our way to Jinshaling.

Finally, and with the suddenness of a cold bucket of water, we arrived at the Jinshaling section of the Great Wall. How did we know? This might have been the giveaway: 

One minute we were traversing fallen rocks and loose stairs, the next, we were in the supremely accessible, smooth-cut road-like renovated section of the wall.

10 minutes later it was time for a toilet break and water before jumping in the van to head home. The trip home was much shorter - we all fell asleep within minutes! Absolutely the best experience we had in an amazing country.