How to approach it
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and said I really believed I should go and see…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

A short walk uphill from the car park past various stalls brings you first to an office that will sell you a ticket for ¥55 to go up by chairlift and down by ‘speed chute’ on a…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

Although the entrance is advertised on big hoardings and a formal ticket is issued, it’s not clear that this site is legally open. It is very attractive, however, since local…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

nb: In May 2019 the Bā Dá Lǐng administration announced that daily visitor numbers would be capped at 65,000 from June 1. There is no guarantee that that limit will be enforced, or…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

This section of the Wall was closed in 2010 and has only partially reopened, with ten towers accessible. Tickets must now be reserved one day in advance, by calling 8100 9999 (not…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

At the entrance to Jīn Shān Lǐng go straight on to Zhuānduǒ Kǒu (砖垛口), mount the Wall and turn left if you are proceeding to Sīmǎtái (to enjoy most of the length of the…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

The tour buses advertise this simply as Huáng Huā Chéng, for a few years now the soi-disant ‘Old China Hand’ site of choice. But beyond a small and unappealing…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng

If the Wall is big, the myths are bigger, but the idea of a single, continuous, extremely long, picture-perfect, crenellated wall that kept out marauding barbarian hordes has a grip on the imagination of the travelling public that the Chinese…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond

This short stretch is principally a destination for Chinese tour groups, and foreign faces are rare. The car park in front of the gate is noisy with piped music, pushy vendors, and…