Shuǐ Guān Great Wall 水关长城
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 ‘black’ cabs pestering to drive you back to Běijīng. At its lowest point, where you mount it, the Wall has been rebuilt with a fake gate, beyond which lies a quiet, rural China, partly adapting itself to income from selling meals to visitors who wander that way.
Once on the wall you face a steep climb in either direction, and there’s no chair-lift, although handrails have been installed. Tour groups arrive as early as 8am and turn left towards Bā Dá Lǐng. There’s a gruesome iron staircase back down to ground level fitted to one side to keep traffic flowing in one direction.
So turn right for relative peace, effort put into the steep climb well compensated by views back down to the expressway and the railway line to Bā Dá Lǐng and on to Mongolia. The hillsides are splashes of russets and reds and spiky with power pylons beneath whatever murk is drifting in.
The first watchtower has been rebuilt, and you can climb it to find many a girlfriend’s name carved in the brick parapet. The Wall has a yellowy stone base with the usual grey brick superstructure lined with pale mortar.
After about a 25-minute climb for the moderately fit, the Wall flattens out and reverts to its naturally crumbling state, after which you find your way blocked by guards. The Wall looks impressively wild beyond, and you could once reach The Commune this way. Nor is walking the Wall to Bā Dá Lǐng in the other direction possible.
▶ Shuǐ Guān Cháng Chéng, Bā Dá Lǐng expressway Shuǐ Guān exit about 2km before Bā Dá Lǐng, in Yánqìng County, gps 40º 20.249’ N, 116º 01.949’ E, t 8118 1038, www.bdlsg.com, 6.30am–5.30pm, peak times; otherwise 7.30am–5pm. ¥40. nb: unless stopped, ticket sellers add ¥2 insurance. taxi north up the Bā Dá Lǐng Expressway not far beyond Jūyōng Guān.
Take the opportunity to walk on a few minutes through the gate and straight on uphill to a small village with cockerels calling and signs advertising 农家院 (nóng jiā yuán, homestays with farmer families) and 农家饭 (nóng jiā fàn, farm-style meals), and fresh building advertising profit made from feeding visitors to the Wall and employment at The Commune, just beyond it (10–15 minutes’ walk altogether). There’s considerably more luxury here, including two restaurants and the opportunity to view some of the mansions designed by an assortment of Asian architects (for a fee if not resident). There’s informal access to an attractively overgrown section of the Wall for Commune guests.
Jūyōng Guān Great Wall is just south down the Bā Dá Lǐng Expressway, and Bā Dá Lǐng Great Wall itself is just to the north.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Bā Dá Lǐng Great Wall
Previously: Jūyōng Guān Great Wall
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
