Great Wall of China

Replies: 10 - Last Post: 19-Feb-2007 03:25 Last Post By: TCM

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ceebee78

13-Feb-2007 03:28
Posts: 7

Great Wall of China

Hi there

I'm in Beijing at the moment and am hoping to make the trip out to the Great Wall on Thursday (ie in two days time!).

I have have a couple of questions:

1. Which is the best part of the wall to go and see?

2. Are you able to go the wall by yourself or do you need to join an organised tour to do so? I would rather just do it myself but am not sure of the hassle factor!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

ellyse

13-Feb-2007 09:46
Posts: 8,932

1) Whoever says Badaling is the BEST section of the Great Wall has to be a PRC Chinese, and most probably a tour agent at that. I've never heard of a Western tourist who'd really prefer Badaling to any of the other parts. Ugh! Best bet for half-day is Mutianyu, or Simatai; best for full-day is Jinshanling-Simatai.
2) Easiest way to NOT go by tour nor by public transport would be to hire your own vehicle and driver. Cost for Mutianyu round-trip around 400-450 RMB.
Cheers!

Johnny

13-Feb-2007 10:13
Posts: 6,875

There's been some great Chinglish from tour agents on this site lately. #1 -3 are classics of their kind.

Badaling is actually a very good place to take photographs of the wall, because there the wall looks like it is meant to look (ie on all the photographs). Or rather it would be if it was deserted while you were there, and if there were no aggressive souvenir salespeople around to ruin your day and sour all your memories of China after you return home.

Ellyse #2 is right (as usual). Find a driver for the day and negociate a price (and unless you really want to go to a jade/enamel/medicine factory make it COMPLETELY understood that if he takes you there you're going to ask him to take you back to your hotel and he won't get a cent out of you).

Huang Hua might be worth considering, but I heard on here that it had been closed for renovation recently.

Everything in moderation, even moderation.

Harry_Mudd

13-Feb-2007 14:25
Posts: 4,088

ellyse, half wrong, and rude. Johnny, half right...

OP, what do you want to see? The Badaling section is great, but lots of tourists. It is the best as regards being rebuilt to pretty much what the wall looked like when it was built. (except for the handrail) The other pats of the wall are good but les swell preserved and some parts ae only for the under 40's. The wall can be a hike!

To get to badaling the easiest way is to go to Deshengmen (get off at Jishuitan and walk east) behind the coin museum and catch one of the many buses. Y10. You will be looking at more than Y200 for any other part of the wall.

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road" - Henry Ward Beecher

viajeralaura

14-Feb-2007 13:46
Posts: 166

Rude or not, I think Elyse is totally right.

If you want to see a totally rebuilt tourist-ready part of the wall, that looks like it could have been built last year, go to Badaling -- but JinShanling and Simatai have far more beautiful landscape and less tourists. I liked Mutianyu as well, sort of an in-between choice -- easier to get to from Beijing, not so touristy, but pretty rebuilt. The times I have been there there haven't been many tourists, but I don't know if that is typical.

skydivingirl

14-Feb-2007 15:37
Posts: 53

Okay, I went in December and we had no real hassles.
We took the regular public bus instead of what many told us to do on a tour. We went to the Great Wall and walked it by ourselves. But it's easy enough to do if you have no problem being on your own. I just met up with a couple and we decided to do it together The biggest problem is when you have to transfer onto the bus that will take you there. Here was the problem we ran into. You generally can't hide as a foreigner in China. (That will become obvious) So when we got out to transfer to the bus that would take us to Badaling, there were a bunch of taxi drivers (smart buggers!) and they kept telling us the last bus had left. We were almost sucked in, but we decided to ask the bus driver and got on for one heck of a lot less.
IMHO the "original wall" there isn't much to see, as we were told by loads of people.

People are like teabags you find out how strong they are when they are in hot water

Harry_Mudd

14-Feb-2007 16:45
Posts: 4,088

#7, you are assuming that the OP has the same tastes as you. saying what your preference is, and making it sound like a fact is not right..

and the scenery at any part of the wall is the same.

rolling hills.

"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road" - Henry Ward Beecher

yellowyang

14-Feb-2007 23:39
Posts: 3

i am a chinese high school student . without any doubt ellyses saying is totally right.
badaling is just a little symbol of great wall .

Bugz

17-Feb-2007 11:39
Posts: 95

I have read about Leos Hostel on this site, am not sure if I have this name correct, who apparently does a very good tour to the Wall where there are very few tourists.
Any idea what his contact details are?
I have also read about sleeping on the Wall and wakening to the sunrise- sounds great, how easy is it to do this?
Bugz

Bugz

Masahiro

18-Feb-2007 20:51
Posts: 3

Badaling was not my first choice but I'm glad I went. I wanted to go further out but just no time. Right now one of the main views at Badaling is spoilt somewhat by a huge sign on the hills advertising the Beijing Olympics. Edit it out with photoshop!
In Beijing I took a cab to get the public bus (no. 919/green and white bus) from right beside the big watch tower at Deshengmen(see Harry Mudd above). Just check that the bus is the express one which takes an hour and not the slow one. Fellow passengers in the bus were relaxed and friendly- Chinese tourists doing the same thing as me. I think I was the only foreigner. I had no hassle at all from taxi drivers. 919 bus is very regular. After walking the wall I returned to where the bus had arrived and easily got another one back to the city.
Badaling can get extremely busy though. Avoid it at the weekend. Lunchtime is a good time to walk the wall as the tour groups seem to disappear into restaurants.

TCM

19-Feb-2007 03:25
Posts: 8

Hi there,

We went there last summer. We walked the Simatai - Jinshanling bit of the wall. We went with http://greatwalladventure.com/.

We did not stay in the hostel, just booked the trip. We were a small bus full of foreingers. We were dropped off in Jinshanling and picked up again in Simatai. There was no guide with us. So the whole busload split up within a few minutes and it was like walking on our own. There were very few other tourists on that part of the wall. I can really recommend this trip. There are beautifully restored parts of the wall, but also old and really run down ones. The scenery is breathtaking. The whole trip was just amazing!

Have fun, cheers
tcm

Das Dilemma dieser Welt ist, dass die Narren so sicher und die Weisen so voller Zweifel sind.

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