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For most travelers, the Great Wall of China is on the top of their list of places to visit in China. Spanning 13,000 miles from the North Korean Border to the deserts of Xinjiang, the Great Wall is not only historically significant but also a spectacular sight to see with your own eyes.
Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall is not a single continuous wall; rather, it’s made up of many disjointed segments built across many centuries. Because of this, the material, style, and landscape vary quite a bit depending on which stretch you visit. Generally speaking, the sections close to Beijing and east of it are the most elaborate and well maintained, since Beijing has been the capital of China and its most important city for most of the past 1000 years.
Given this massive length, you can imagine that there are almost countless number of places you can visit the wall. For most travelers, it can be overwhelming to figure out which sections are worth visiting. To help with that decision, here’s my recommended list of the eight most interesting and significant sections of the Great Wall of China to visit.
1. Badaling
Badaling is the single most popular and visited section of the Great Wall – partly because of how many important dignitaries have visited it, like Richard Nixon – and is a good choice for most visitors. It’s very representative of what the wall looks like, easily accessible from Beijing, and not overly physically challenging to hike. The downside of this section is that it’s almost always packed with tourists, and for many Chinese tourists visiting the Great Wall means visiting Badaling. Getting to Badaling is easy with a 2-hour train ride, and there are lots of day tours from Beijing you can sign up to as well.
2. Mutianyu
Mutianyu is also quite popular, but less so with domestic tourists and therefore much less crowded than Badaling. This section of the Great Wall is located 70km northeast of Beijing, very well restored and at a glance looks similar to Badaling. Most Mutianyu is relatively flat, so hiking here is fairly effortless. When you’re done with the wall, you can toboggan down the hill back to the base. Getting here is not easy as there is no direct transportation from Beijing, so getting on a tour is highly recommended for this section.
3. Jinshanling
If you want to experience just how epic the Great Wall is, Jinshanling should be your top choice. This section runs along the peak of a mountainous region of Hebei province, 125 kilometers northeast of Beijing. Remote, steep, and rugged, Jinshanling section feels like it’s straight from the movie Mulan. There’s a spot where you can see the wall running along the ridge of the mountain into the distance, much farther than you can see elsewhere, and it really gives you a sense of just how impressive the wall is. A significant chunk of Jinshanling is not restored, and it gets pretty steep, so this section is not suitable if you’re not in a decent physical condition.
4. Simatai
Located right next to Jinshanling – in fact many people hike from Jinshanling to Simatai – this section of the wall is less maintained and even more rugged. Towards the end of the hikable area, the wall becomes increasingly dilapidated and the mountain increasingly steep, until you come to a spot where the mountain in front of you – where hiking is prohibited – is basically a narrow, tall strip of rocks jutting out almost 90 degrees from the base, and the wall is snaking atop this strip with sheer cliffs on both sides. Simatai overlooks Gubei Water Town, a restored village of traditional northern Chinese houses now operating as a resort. Since Simatai is also the only section of the Great Wall that allows night hike, spending a night in Gubei Water Town is a great way to try this unique experience.
5. Jiankou
If you really want to go off the beaten path and experience the Great Wall that most people won’t ever see, Jiankou is the place to go. The mountain is very steep, with many spots over 45 degrees; the wall is rough, with some sections of it reclaimed by trees and other sections missing stairs; and the infrastructure is scarce, where you need to hike up the mountain for an hour before you can even start with the wall. Your reward for braving it is an undisturbed immersion into the world a Chinese frontier guards may have experienced hundreds of years ago. If you want, you can pitch a tent and camp here overnight, which, even though technically not allowed, lots of people do because the rules are basically unenforced due to how inaccessible it is. This section is also quite dangerous, so be prepared and hike carefully.
6. Gubeikou
Gubeikou is representative of what’s usually called the “wild wall”, referring to sections of the Great Wall that have not been restored for a long time, perhaps since the imperial times. Lack of maintenance has resulted in the these sections looking more like Roman ruins than functioning structures you see in popular sections like Badaling. Here, you will most likely be by yourself, walking along a “wall” that is not much more than a pile of rocks in many places. To be honest, I don’t personally think this section is particularly scenic, it’s simply a different vibe due to how abandoned it is. To hike this section you need to first get to the town of Gubeikou, from where you hike up for a while before you reach the wall. As you can imagine, tourism infrastructure is non-existent here.
7. Juyongguan
Juyongguan is one of the three major passes along the wall. A pass is simply a checkpoint where soldiers in the ancient times controlled movement in and out of China. Juyongguan is the closest pass to Beijing, located just 60 kilometers north of the city. The wall itself here is ok, well restored but otherwise not particularly special or scenic; however, the presence of the border control fortifications with their large towers and defensive cannons, make it an interesting place to experience the wall.
8. Shanhaiguan
Another one of the three major passes along the wall. Shanghaiguan is interesting for two reasons. First, historically this was the most strategically important pass for imperial governments guarding against nomadic tribes to the north. The pass was built along a narrow choke point between the mountain and the sea, blocking the shortest and the most practical path to inner China. Second, this is where the Great Wall meets the sea, making this a very interesting view of the wall that you won’t see anywhere else. Shanhaiguan is not near Beijing at all. Rather, it’s located in the city of Qinghuangdao, 300 kilometers away from Beijing but easily accessible by high speed train.
About the author:
Steve Long is an entrepreneur and digital nomad currently based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has visited over 40 countries since 2010, and hope to visit another 50 countries in the next five years. You can check his website at https://www.thetravelbrief.com
