The Great Wall

There are a few different places outside of Beijing where you can see the Great Wall. We didn't really know what we were going to do when we walked by the Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation and saw different tour options for the Great Wall. The most popular place to see the Great Wall is at Badaling but we chose the Jinshanling to Simatai option. We decided on the “more challenging hike” because it was less crowded, had more of the original wall preserved, and allowed us to see it at two sections. Plus this is what the tour guides recommended.

The day was definitely long. We were up at 5am and left via bus for Jinshanling at 7am. The 110km journey took about 3 hours. We finally started hiking around 11am. The wall really was pretty amazing. It seemed to go on forever. I think I remember them saying that it was 5,500 miles to be exact. And to think that it was made by hand and took over 10 years to build – insanity!!

It was really cool to be able to actually “walk” on the original wall. Our hike was 10km and we got to see/walk through 30 original watchtowers. The watchtowers were pretty neat as they had steps leading up to small rooms and balconies, with tons of windows (so you could actually watch). There were a few times where we were on watchtowers by ourselves which was so very surreal.

The hike was about 3 ½ hours and it definitely was challenging at times. There was a lot of up and downhill but the hardest part was that the steps were uneven and sometimes slippery. We lucked out though as the weather wasn’t too bad. I can imagine it’s really hard to do in hot weather. You definitely have to be in decent shape but it is definitely one of the coolest things we’ve done. Oh and the best part – we ziplined down from the last watchtower. How fun!!

It was a great day. We met some really cool peeps, saw a sick wall, and got a great workout. That's pretty productive! :)