Your
travel guide to the Great Wall near Beijing
The Great Wall passes through the north of
Beijing Municipality, an hour or two by car from Beijing
City. In this guide, we look at the seven sections of Great
Wall that you can visit near to Beijing. Each part of the
Great Wall in Beijing is described in greater detail, and
with lots of photographs, in its own page.
The Great Wall of China close to Beijing
City
The light green
area in the map below shows Beijing Municipality, with
the Great Wall shown in brown.
All of these sections of
the Great Wall close to Beijing have tours which go
there, but the most popular is BaDaLing Great Wall
because it is one of the closest and can also be reached
easily by a frequent and cheap bus (919 from DeShengMen).
The popular sections of the Great Wall near Beijing
BaDaLing
Great Wall, JuYongGuan Great Wall and MuTianYu Great Wall
The sections of the Great
Wall closest to Beijing are JuYongGuan and BaDaLing.
MuTianYu Great Wall is only a little further, but without
an expressway to it.
Badaling Great Wall offers
awesome views, but it can also be the most crowded (near
the entrance), especially at weekends or on national
holidays, because it is the most commonly visited by tour
groups. MuTianYu Great Wall is another restored section
to the east of BaDaLing, and is also much longer (22km).
MuTianYu requires a more rigorous climb, however. Both
MuTianYu Great Wall and BaDaLing Great Wall have cable
cars to help you reach the top.
JuYongGuan Pass Great Wall
is actually a little nearer than Badaling Great Wall.
Both cross the same steep-sided valley through which a
river, railway line and the Badaling Expressway now pass.
The rigorous climb at JuYongGuan is complemented by a
number of attractions at ground level. JuYongGuan Great
Wall also features some life-size Terracotta Warriors.
BaDaLing
Great Wall
Stretching for 4.8 km
along rolling mountains, the BaDaLing section of the
Great Wall has 19 strategically located watchtowers. This
section was crucial to protect the capital against attack
in ancient times, giving BaDaLing the name 'key to the
north gate'.
The top of the Great Wall
here is wide enough in most parts for 10 soldiers to
march side by side. The outer parapet is crenelated with
merlons almost 2 m high.
Badaling Fortress, at an
elevation of 600m, was built in 1505. The walls around
it, built in 1571, are 10m high, 4m thick and over 1 km
long in circumference. The fortress has 2 gate towers. A
tablet inscribed with "Outpost to JuYongGuan
Pass" is hung on the eastern gate and another with
"The Lock on the Northern Gateway" on the
western gate. As the entrance to BaDaLing Great Wall,
this fortress is an important defensive spot on the north
side of JuYongGuan Pass. During the Ming dynasty, a
strong force was garrisoned here.
East of the fortress lies
a huge rock, 7m long and 2m high, named 'Watching
Beijing Rock'. It is said that the Empress Dowager CiXi
once passed here as she fled to the north when the Eight
Allied Forces invaded Beijing in 1900. Making a short
stop here, she looked back towards Beijing and lamented
the loss of her comfortable life in the Forbidden City.
In recent years, this
section of the Great Wall has been repaired (using
traditional materials and techniques) and a Great Wall
Museum has been established near to the wall.
Over 100 million visitors
have walked along BaDaLing Great Wall.
MuTianYu
Great Wall
Located in HuaiRou County,
70 km northeast of Beijing, the MuTianYu section of the
Great Wall lies between JuYongGuan, Badaling, JianKou and
HuangHua in the west, and JinShanLing, Simatai and
GuBeiKou in the east. One of the best-preserved parts of
the Great Wall (and now carefully restored), the MuTianYu
section served as part of the northern barrier defending
both the capital and the imperial tombs.
First built in the mid-6th
century during the Northern Qi dynasty, MuTianYu Great
Wall is older than BaDaLing Great Wall. During the Ming
dynasty, under the supervision of General Xu Da,
construction of the present wall began on the foundations
of the Northern Qi wall. In 1404, a gateway was built in
the Great Wall here. In 1569, MuTianYu Great Wall was
rebuilt.
MuTianYu has the largest
construction scale and best overall quality among all
sections of the Great Wall. Built mainly with granite,
the wall is 7 - 8 meters high and the top is 4 - 5 meters
wide.
Compared with other
sections of the Great Wall, MuTianYu possesses some
unique characteristics in its construction. Watchtowers
are densely placed along this section of the Great Wall -
22 watchtowers in the 2,250 m long wall. That is, one
every 100 meters whereas the norm is about one every 500
meters.
Both the outer and inner
parapets are crenellated with merlons, so that shots
could be fired at the enemy on both sides, a feature very
rare on other parts of the Great Wall.
The MuTianYu Pass itself
has 3 watchtowers, a big one in the center and a smaller
one on each side. Standing on the same terrace, the 3
watchtowers are connected to each other from inside
composing a formidable but rarely seen structure among
sections of the Great Wall.
MuTianYu Great Wall is
surrounded by woodland and streams. The forest coverage
is over 90% making for wonderful scenery. A cable car is
available to whisk you up onto the Great Wall - which is
a good idea given how far along the wall you can then
travel.
SiMaTai
Great Wall
A much wilder and less
crowded option is to go to the section known as SiMaTai
Great Wall. However, this section is quite a lot further
away - over 100 km northeast of Beijing, and part of the
journey is along smaller roads through the mountains. The
journey time to SiMaTai Great Wall is about 2 1/4 hours.
Higher than BaDaLing,
running along a precipitous mountain ridge, and with the
extra beauty of being in a weathered, partly crumbled
state, the Great Wall at SiMaTai fulfills one's Great
Wall dreams and so is well worth the journey.
SiMaTai Great Wall is 5.4
km long, has 35 watchtowers and joins with JinShanLing
Great Wall to the west. There are many places along the
wall here that are unmatched among other sections of the
Great Wall.
SiMaTai Great Wall is
separated into two parts - east and west - by a valley.
The west section is relatively gentle and has 20
well-preserved watchtowers. The east part is precipitous
and has 15 rugged watchtowers on 1000 meter high peaks,
creating a journey you will surly never forget.
JinShanLing
Great Wall
Just to the west of
SiMaTai Great Wall is JinShanLing Great Wall. Partly
restored, JinShanLing Great Wall lies in beautiful
scenery that is more rolling and forested, whereas
SiMaTai Great Wall is more rugged. JinShanLing is another
good choice for a more peaceful Great Wall experience. Although a bit narrower
than BaDaLing and MuTianYu, JinShanLing Great Wall
features complicated and well preserved fortification
systems. One can hike all the way
from JinShanLing to SiMaTai. End to end, the journey is
about 30km and requires about 6 hours or so at a leisurly
pace.
A good idea for a two,
three or four day trip : combine a visit to Simatai
GreatWall and / or JinShanLing Great Wall with a visit to
ChengDe, the ancient imperial summer resort, that is on
the same line of direction from Beijing (about 2 hours
drive further). ChengDe contains a huge imperial park,
encircled by a charming mini Great Wall, and a number of
interesting temples. ChengDe itself is encircled by
mountains and is a picturesque place well worth a visit.
HuangHua
Great Wall
HuangHua Great Wall was
constructed during the Ming Dynasty and is about 70km
north from Beijing.
In summer, all the
villages in the area of HuangHua Great Wallare immersed
in yellow flowers, hence the name HuangHua ('Yellow
Flower'). In autumn, the yellow flowers give way to
boundless yellow leaves.HuangHua Great Wall is a
good examples of 'Wild Great Wall' - so expect loose
rocks and brambles, and be very careful of your footing
and which parts you really should not attempt to climb
(you can pass around).
JianKou
Great Wall
JianKou Great Wall was
constructed during the Ming Dynasty and is about 73km
north from Beijing. JianKou Great Wall is
regarded by some people as the most picturesque section
of Great Wall and is a good example of 'Wild Great Wall'.
The main section of JianKou Great Wall is built along a
mountain ridge with steep cliffs on each side. Therefore,
climbing the wall here needs a good level of fitness and great
care.
JianKou Great Wall
connects with MuTianYu Great Wall, 10km to the east.
JuYongGuan
Great Wall
JuYongGuan Great Wall is a
Pass that lies in an 18 km long valley named GuanGou in
ChangPing County, about 55 km from Beijing City.
JuYongGuan is one of the three great passes of the Great
Wall of China. In fact, JuYongGuan Great
Wall actually has two passes, one to the south and one to
the north. The southern one is what we now call
JuYongGuan and the northern one is BaDaLing.JuYongGuan
rises steeply each side of a fortrified gate that crosses
a river (and now a reservoir). There is a temple and
other attractions close by. JuYongGuan
Great Wall also features some life-size Terracotta
Warriors.
JuYongGuan Pass was
connected into the Great Wall of China during the
Northern and Southern Dynasties period. The JuYongGuan Great Wall
we see today was initially built during the Ming dynasty
and it received much renovation later. It is a very
strategically important place connecting inner China with
the area near the northern border. JuYongGuan Great Wall
was also of major defensive importance for the city of
Beijing.
GuBeiKou
Great Wall
GuBeiKou Great Wall is
located in north MiYun County about 150 km north east of
Beijing. It connects with JinShanLing and then SiMaTai to the east. GuBeiKou provided vital access to a road that
runs north-south across the YanShan Mountains. With the
PanLong (Coiling Dragon) and WoHu (Crouching Tiger)
mountains in the background, this section of the Great
Wall is linked to the QingFeng (Green Wind) and DiCui
(Piled Verdure) peaks. The ChaoHe River also runs
across the Great Wall here from north to south. The main
section of GuBeiKou Great Wall joins the PanLong and WoHu
mountains into an integral whole to form an impressively
strong fortification。
In 1378, the 11th year of
HongWu's reign in the Ming dynasty, General Xu Da ordered
this section of the Great Wall to be rebuilt and
strengthened. Few sections have seen as many battles as
GuBeiKou and some of the battles are famous in Chinese
history.
On the southern mountain
slopes of GuBeiKou Great Wall stands a temple dedicated
to Yang Ye, a famous Great Wall garrison general during
the Song Dynasty. There are quite a few temples in China
dedicated to this general, but this one at GuBeiKou Great
Wall is perhaps the earliest.
ShuiGuan Great Wall
ShuiGuan ('Water Pass') Great Wall is a restored section that lies between JuYongGuan Great Wall and Badaling Great Wall where the wall crosses a small river (hence the name). The wall here dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). As is the case for the other Ming dynasty defences in this area, the wall itself is constructed with stone blocks topped with brickwork.
Once through the grand archway of the pass itself, one can go either north or south; both quickly lead to steep inclines. The north side is highest and once at the top, which is no mean feat, there are great views; one can easily see Badaling Great Wall in the distance from here. The arrow tower of the pass is an impressive 15 meters tall. Nearby attractions include the Great Wall Stele Forest and the Stone Buddha Temple.
ShuiGuan Great Wall opened to the public in 1995 after restoration work was completed. There are seven watchtowers in the open section.
Video of Badaling Great Wall close to Beijing
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