Thorn Tree travel forum

1

A search will find that this topic crops up way too often.

Opinion varies.

Most respondents just give what they fel without thinking about the OP.

so. The easiest and cheapest part to get to, and the most restored is Badaling.

Others are a little more rustic Simatai is very popular, but Mutienyu and jingshalong are getting busy too.

Badaling is very touristy, as is Simatai.

Mutianyu, to a lesser extent.

"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

2

In your situation with a family of 4, hire a private car or taxi for a 1/2 day--a nice vehicle with driver shouldn't be more than 400-500 RMB total. You should go to Mutianyu. Badaling will be impossibly crowded and isn't that great anyway, Simitai will be a 3 hour drive (each way) due to holiday traffic, and is too steep and strenuous with the 1-year old. Mutianyu is 1.5 hour drive each way from central Beijing. Mutianyu has an enclosed cable car that will take you up to the top of the wall, and you can then walk a bit. You can get back down by same cable car, open chair lift, or toboggan. I think you will need some kind of baby carrier to get from car park to cable car, and then while walking along the wall--it's not flat up there, lots of steps and ramps. The little one will not be able to get the whole way through it without being carried at least part of the way. Expect conditions to be crowded. If you can get up and out of hotel early (and I mean by 6:30 a.m.) to arrive around 8:00 opening time, you'll be ahead of the crushing wave. If not, expect a big crowd from about 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.--then a relative lull around midday. There is now a decent and clean nearby restaurant offering western items--google The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu. This might make for a good refreshment stop with kids. Take some small snacks and plenty of water.

3

Agree with the visiting Mutianyu. Recently visited it with my more-than-70 year-old, one-lunged mom (hope she's not reading) and she had no problems. It's a bit of an uphill walk from the car park to the tram. But easily manageable for just about anyone. And this is a very scenic section. Make sure to ride the toboggan down.

For photos of the wall and a few more obscure spots in China check out my website, www.onceahighway.com.

Travel far,
fds

"I'm timid by nature. And almost sick of adventure." - A. Quartermain, Explorer

4

Another vote for Mutianyu here.
Cheers!

5

In Beijing,there are two Great Walls:Juyong Pass and Badaliing Great Wall,you can chose any one of them,but the difference is Juyong Pass have not cable car,but Badaling have.Also,Bdaling Great Wall is little bigger than Juyong Pass.Anyway,those tow Great walls are nearly same.
As you situation,I recommend you to visit Badaling Great Wall,because of cable car.

Roy.liu

6

One more vote for Mutianyu. We went there 2 weeks ago with our 5 and 8 year old boys. It was great. They both walked about 4 km parts of it fairly steep but safe and with good steps. If the little one had been 1 year old we would definitely bring a back carrier. We took a taxi (with meter starting at 10 Yuan) from the hotel (who wrote down the name of the bus station in chinese) to the bus station in the Northeast part of Beijing (with buses to Mutianyu). But the ticket line was very long, and the direct bus just had left, so we bargained with a local minibus and got a return fare of only 160 Yuan for the entire minibus for us 2 adults and 2 children (we had about 3 hours at the wall and didn't pay anything before we returned to the bus station.)

7

Is it better to book a day trip to Mutianyu, or should I just hire a taxi/pte car? How much does it cost by the way?

8

If you hire a vehicle and driver it should cost around 400 RMB for round-trip.
Cheers!