Travel Log: Great Wall of China

    If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that in November I took an amazing trip to China. My husband and I spent 17 days (including travel days) exploring several regions of this massive country. We visited Shanghai, Zhangjiejie National Forest Park, Tianmenshan National Forest Park, Beijing, the Great Wall of China, Xi'an, and Suzhou. Visiting the Great Wall of China was a bucket list item for us, as it is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. The collective series of fortifications that make up the Great Wall stretch across a mind-blowing 13,170 miles (21,196 km) and there are several well-preserved sections close to Beijing: Badaling, Mutianyi, and Juyongguan. We booked a tour that included a visit to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and a helicopter ride to see the wall from above. Please continue scrolling to see more photos and details of our day trip to the Great Wall of China.

I booked our tour through Viator, and it included a guide and driver with roundtrip transportation from our Beijing hotel. Since we visited in low season, our guide recommended a pickup time of 9:00 am and the drive took approximately 1 hour 45 minutes to the dropoff point near the ticket office. There are two ways to reach the actual entrance points to walk on the Great Wall: a cable car and a chairlift. There are also two ways down: the same cable car or a toboggan (also called a "speed slideway"). We really wanted to take the toboggan down, and its location dumps out underneath the chairlift, so in order to start and end in the same place we took the chairlift up. The day we visited was sunny and clear but chilly--I layered up and was very comfortable with a fleece vest, coat, fleece-lined hat, and gloves.

You may or may not know that the Great Wall was not built all at once. There were a series of walls built by different states as early the 7th century BC in an effort to protect these earlier cities from neighboring tribesman invaders. When Qin Shi Huangdi and his armies conquered the neighboring states in 221 BC and became the first emperor of China, he began an effort to connect and fortify these walls to create a defense system against the northern tribes. Future dynasties built and rebuilt sections of the Great Wall, but the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is most known for their extensive contributions including stone and brick renovations and the addition of watchtowers. The Mutianyu section of the wall is one of the best preserved sections built by the Ming Dynasty and that makes it a popular section for tourists to visit.

After exiting the chairlift, we turned right and walked down a set of steps to the nearest watchtower. Visitors can walk inside and through the watchtowers to get a sense of how thick the stone walls are, and how soldiers used the birds-eye view to see and alert when intruders were approaching. We walked through the watchtower and down the steps toward Zhengguantai Pass. This section was built during the Ming Dynasty and we learned that the watchtowers are so large that they have rooms for food storage, a command center, and sleeping quarters for soldiers. While we were not able to enter the interior rooms, we could certainly gauge the size of the pass and envision how hundreds of soldiers would have walked the wall and seen the same views. Incredible! 

After walking partway up the steep set of stairs toward the Grand Turret, we turned around and retraced our steps back to the chairlift exit. We then continued on, walking past several more watchtowers and enjoying the views. You can observe intentional openings in the walls where soldiers could pour hot oil down on intruders if they attempted to scale the wall, as well as the openings for archers to rain arrows down on intruders as they approached. We spent a couple of hours total walking the different sections, stopping to take photos and videos, and enjoying the incredible views of the surrounding area from the top of the wall.

Despite the chilly temperatures, we very much enjoyed visiting the Great Wall in November because the weather was decent and crowds were low. You may have noticed that I removed my hat and gloves in some of these photos, as the sun really felt warm in the afternoon especially without significant wind. We saw a couple of student groups, but other than that it was relatively quiet and the fact that the Great Wall is massive really helps people spread out and find their own spaces to take in the views. The surrounding landscape was pretty brown/dead due to it being winter, and I would guess that during the spring/summer/fall months it is much prettier and looks more alive.

After walking the Wall for a couple of hours, we returned to the central area with the chairlift exit and toboggan entrance. Our tickets included both modes of transport, and after a short five minute-ish wait we scanned our tickets and jumped on our toboggans for the ride down. A couple of rules to keep in mind if you are thinking about this route down: there are signs that state that visitors over the age of 60 are not allowed to ride (why the age of 60 I have no idea, but apparently they do ask for ID if you appear to be over 60) and that children need to ride with an adult (1 child with 1 adult for a max of 2 people per toboggan). The toboggans are very simple to operate; there is only a simple lever that you can push forward to go and pull back to stop. If you want to go fast, definitely leave some distance between yourself and the person in front of you as many of the visitors we observed were happy to enjoy the ride at a slow pace. Once we left some room and were able to let the toboggans fly at their intended speed the ride was a thrill!

After walking the Great Wall and a short but very fun toboggan ride down, we met back up with our driver and headed to a nearby helipad for our helicopter ride. Our helicopter ride was touch and go during our time in Beijing, and I actually rescheduled our day tour out due to the high winds when we first arrived in the area. Fortunately for us, the wind stayed calm and we were able to go up and see the Great Wall from above. The views from above provide an additional perspective on just how massive the Great Wall is, it was truly an unforgettable experience. 

One final stop during this unforgettable day was a jade store. I mentioned to our guide that I was interested in purchasing a jade bracelet as a memento from our China trip, and our driver took us to a store not far from the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. I was so in awe of all of the jade pieces that I completely forgot to take photos, but the store we visited had thousands of jade pieces including bracelets, necklaces, rings, figurines, seals, and more. The jade pieces varied from very light, almost white shades to blue-ish tones to very bright green. I decided on a bracelet that was a medium green and versatile for daily wear and am very happy with this souvenir! It wasn't cheap, but the cost was significantly less than it would have been to purchase in the United States.

What an unforgettable day! I hope you enjoyed seeing these photos and reading about our day trip to the Great Wall of China. I am still in awe after visiting this modern Wonder of the World. Please stay tuned for a couple more China travel logs coming soon, thank you for visiting my blog today, and I hope you have a great week!