Bā Dá Lǐng Great Wall 八达岭长城
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 that the promised warnings when visitor numbers reach 39,000, 52,000, and 65,000 on any particular day will appear on the site’s website as promised. But to avoid times when the crowds atop the Wall resemble Běijīng’s peak hour traffic it might at least be worth looking. badaling.cn
Once, everyone was very enthusiastic about Bā Dá Lǐng: it was the only open day-trip section near Běijīng, and it has seen and continues to see more foreign heads of state than any other. But now it has fallen out of fashion at least with independent travellers, although the site’s natural beauty and the Wall’s acrobatic behaviour remain the same. As an important defensible point, it was the site of early earthworks and of major brick-clad construction along a new route in the late 15th century during the Míng.
It never fails to climb the steepest slopes to the highest points, even if that means doubling and redoubling back on itself. At Bā Dá Lǐng it is possible to stand on the Wall and turn through 180 degrees with some part of it in view at varying distances through every degree.
Admittedly, the area around Bā Dá Lǐng might well be renamed the Great Wall Shopping Experience, heaving as it is with T-shirt sellers, but once on the Wall itself, climbs to left and right soon thin out the crowds and, in either direction, 30 minutes’ effort will bring you to unrepaired and atmospheric sections with very few people about.
The entrance ticket includes access to the Great Wall Museum but not the Zhān Tiānyòu Museum. The site also offers a circle vision theatre with an iMax-style movie using aerial footage of the Wall and lasting 17 minutes (¥32). Tour guide prices are absurd: ¥100 an hour for Chinese, ¥150 an hour in English. There’s also an audio guide available: Mandarin ¥10, foreign languages ¥40; ¥100 deposit.
The Zhān Tiānyòu Museum (詹天佑纪念馆, Zhān Tiānyòu Jìniànguǎn) honours the man who built the railway line here, the first ever completed with Chinese funds (1909), through particularly difficult terrain, and which burrows under the Wall.
Zhān (1861–1919) studied in the USA, and he solved the problems here by having trains reverse direction to deal with the gradient at a point where there was no room for a loop. There are large table models of the junction he designed, of alternative routes the railway could have taken, and of local sections of the Great Wall under which the railway passes, as well as general information about early railway building in China, almost all of which was done by foreigners, initially with great resistance from the Chinese. The French built the first commercial Chinese railway line in Shànghǎi. It was then bought by the Qīng authorities, who tore it up. Nevertheless, in 1896–1905 foreign powers built 10,076km, including 2790km by Russia, and 2860km by the UK. This forms the backbone of the modern system, to which China makes substantial additions annually, although of late held up by scandals over shoddy construction and attempts to cover-up accidents. There are photographs of railway lines around Běijīng, models of railway engines and other paraphernalia of interest to railway buffs but not greatly enlightening to anyone else, with no English explanations. Neighbouring Qīnglóng Qiáo Dōng Zhàn (one of two stations where the trains reverse) has a statue of Zhān.
A little further on, the Great Wall Museum (中国长城博物馆, Zhōngguó Cháng Chéng Bówùguǎn), is one of several around the country, including at Shān Hǎi Guān and Jiāyù Guān at opposite ends of the Míng wall. This one has nine halls altogether (including one called the ‘Let Us Love Our Motherland and Restore Our Great Wall Hall’). There’s a giant wall-mounted aerial view of the Wall at this location, maps and photographs of sections from different periods, a sketch map of its construction dynasty by dynasty, and plentiful English explanations. There are also samples of construction tools and of weapons, photographs of sections of wall from all over China, some of which make clear how Polo might have missed it (Was Polo Here? and Wall Stories), and introductions to overlapping walls, different defence techniques, walls with ditches in between them, and walls along the edge of marshes. Very good models, including one of Jūyōng Guān and one of the Tiānxià Dìyī Guān in Shān Hǎi Guān near where the Wall reaches the sea. Towards the end the museum loses its way, with Silk Route material and ‘friendship of the nationalities’ political orthodoxy.
‘Love our China and renovate our Great Wall,’ said Dèng Xiǎopíng in 1984, since when its destruction has continued unabated.
▶ Bā Dá Lǐng Cháng Chéng, on Bā Dá Lǐng expressway about 80km N of Běijīng in Yánqìng County, gps 40º 21.381’ N, 116º 00.094’ E, t 6912 1383, badaling.cn, 6.30am–7pm peak times; otherwise 7am–6pm. ¥45 peak; ¥35 rest. b to stop 八达岭长城: 877 from W side of Déshèng Mén
(得胜门), one block east of m Jī Shuǐ Tán (Line 2), departures 6am (6.30am winter)–12.30pm every 5 mins or so, 1 1/2 hours, ¥12. Return 10.30am (11am winter)–5pm. train New high-speed services from Běijīng North began operation in the closing days of 2019 with six departures a day leaving between 06:40 and 16:07, ¥27, 34 minutes. There are three returns between 10:35 and 17:56, taking a few minutes longer. Slower S2 services run ~12 daily, ¥6 (may be discontinued). The high-speed services may also be boarded at m Qīng Hé (Line 13). taxi Bā Dá Lǐng expressway to the Bā Dá Lǐng turning (exit 18) and it’s a further 2km, ¥400 or so all-in (¥500 last resort).
In addition to nóng jiā yuàn (农家院, farmhouse lodging) there’s the Bā Dá Lǐng Fàndiàn (hotel) amongst the souvenir sellers and close to the chair lift, but there’s no obvious reason why you’d want to stay. There’s far too much tourism here to make the restaurants anything other than over-priced and of low quality. The truly desperate will even find a Starbucks and a KFC.
b 879 will take you south to Jūyōng Guān (but double-check it still stops there — service has been off and on over the years) and on to the Míng Tombs, from where there are other services back to Běijīng.
There is an assortment of economical Chinese one-day tours to Bā Dá Lǐng, but the addition to some itineraries of artificial tourist sites of little interest means that time on the Wall is reduced. The tours now depart from Qián Mén Dōng Lù, just southeast of the Qián Mén, but the stop may move elsewhere nearby when construction work is completed.
The 世界文化, World Cultural Heritage Tour Route A, dithers at a recently re-invented ‘Imperial Deer Park’ (not the one in the south, the Mílù Yuàn), then the Míng Tombs’ Dìng Líng before moving on to Bā Dá Lǐng. This is, however, the most convenient choice, with departures every few minutes, year-round, 6am (6.30am low season)–10.30am (¥160, including all entrance fees and, unusually, a snack lunch). The C窟 (Route C) costs only ¥100 (no lunch) but replaces the Míng Tombs with a waxworks show (departures 6.30am/8.30am–11.30am). The B 窟 (Route B) is perhaps best but has only one departure at 9.30am, calling at the Olympic Green, then visiting Bā Dá Lǐng and the Summer Palace (¥190 all-inc.)
The site can be very busy indeed at weekends, with long queues for return buses. Local people offer rides back to town for silly sums that can be reduced to ¥50 per person with all four seats filled. The ride should take you to any point you name in central Běijīng, although depending on others’ destinations it may be by a roundabout route. These are ‘black cabs’ and they are of course illegal, and uninsured. If you take one do not pay until you alight.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Mùtiányù Great Wall
Previously: Shuǐ Guān Great Wall
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