best place to visit the Chinese great wall in a one day trip from Bejing

What time of year are you going?
how physically fit are you?
how far do you want to hike?

How long do you want to stay at the great wall? vs how long are you willing to spend on transport?
what kind of wall do you want to see? (Wild, Original, Semi Restored, Fully Restored?)
What kind of facilities are you expecting? (Cable cars and ziplines, bathrooms, water vendors?)

I would NEVER go to Badaling. It has been fully rebuilt 3 times in the last 50 years. There is nothing original left about it and it is the most crowded and most touristy. It does however have a train that connects it to Beijnig making independent travel easy.

Depending on how many people you are sharing the tour with and how far out, it could be 150RMB to 1000RMB. I usually sent my guests on a 300-350RMB tour.

Badaling is very easy to get to by bus, so it is more busy. Mutianyu is reachable by bus but a bit more difficult, so it is not as busy. Other sections are better reached by car. A driver will cost about 600-700RMB. If there are two of you then it is worth it. You can find drivers here: thebeijinger.com/classifieds/cars-drivers
If you decide to take the bus, go to YouTube, there are several videos showing how to get there by bus.

30 years ago Badaling was already intolerable. I can't imagine what it is like now. I went on a trip to Mutianyu on a trip organised by my hostel a couple of years ago. It was 280y each and we were taken in a car early in the morning. We were on the wall for about 3 hours, which was plenty of time to walk along it, walk up or down or go in the cable car. It wasn't crowded for the first couple of hours and wasn't challenging (i was injured at the time and managed alright) but allowed for quite a bit of walking and a pretty good look at different aspects of the wall. We had lunch and were back in Beijing for much of the afternoon.

Thx alot for your answers
I want to go beginning of sept on a day trip so starting in the morning from Bejing and coming back in the afternoon
so if I understand you wlel better to go to Muntiyanu

This question is asked regularly here and I suggest you read more opinions about the various sections. Everyone has his/her favorite section and story about going to it. Take a look at the beijinghikers and greatwall websites for more information. Make your decision based on all the factors you think important. BTW, the Juyongguan section is also worth consideration.

#1, I'm curious: Badaling section has been "fully rebuilt" 3 times in last 50 years. Rebuilt from the ground up; new packed earth and filling; faced with new stones; what?

Every section that you visit has been restored.
While it is not the best section, I did not find Badaling to be "intolerable". Maybe 30 years ago it was the only section that people could access. Not sure that something that happened 30 years ago is relevant in Beijing where 10 years is like a century in most other places in the world.

Last fall, I enjoyed the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall. I took a tour from one of the hostels in Beijing. It was 280 yuan per person for a full day trip. There were around 15 people on the tour. A bus picked us up at several hostels and took us to this section of the wall. We hiked around 10 kms, hiked down, ate lunch (on our own) and then returned to Beijing around 5 pm. It was a great trip.

Check this article out:
http://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/beijing-travel/how-to-get-to-mutianyu-great-wall-by-bus

We used it to get to mutianyu great wall a few days ago and it worked great.. (I don't speak chinese) Was fairly quiet, but we did not visit on a weekend.
Cost:
12 cny bus to Huairou
3 cny bus from Huairou to mutianyu or take taxi for about 40cny
45 entry without student card (25 for student)
15 cny mandatory shuttle bus to wall (Inc return)
3cny bus back to Huairou or taxi for 40
12 cny bus from Huairou to Beijing

Total cost for us was 90 cny each. You can pay more to take the cable car up the wall.

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