Our next adventure in China led us to the Great Wall of China. In Beijing, there are many sections of the Great Wall where we can can have access to. The more popular sections are the Badaling and Mutianyu. In my opinion, Mutianyu is a better option as Badaling is always overcrowded. For this trip, we visited 2 sections of the wall, Mutianyu and Huanghuacheng.
There is the famous section of the wall where it used to arch over the lake but has since collapsed.
A reservoir dam was constructed near the entrance to the scenic area. The boardwalk trail will bring you to the top of the dam.
Mutianyu
Mutianyu is the longest Great Wall section open to tourist. There are cable cars and gondolas which brings you up to the wall. When coming down, there is an option to take a luge down which I would highly recommend. This section of the wall is about 2.5km long and I walked the wall for about an hour before turning back. It wasn't really challenging even though it looked daunting. There are watchtowers every 100m or so where you can take a breather when you are tired. The scenery is beautiful with trees covering the surrounding area. On the western end near the highest watchtowers, there is a phrase printed on the grassy slope which says,"忠于毛主席" which means "loyalty to Chairman Mao". I guess it is there because Chairman Mao once said that "If you dont get to the Great Wall, you are not a great man" (不到长城非好汉) Thus climbing the Great Wall is a means of showing loyalty to Chairman Mao.
Huanghuacheng
After that exhilarating luge ride down, our next stop was Huanghuacheng. Oh yeah we rented a car with driver for the whole day to bring us around. This place is very hard to get without a car as it is very far from the city. Huanghuacheng is the only Great Wall section that is beside a lake. This section is more like a nature reserve where there is a boardwalk alongside the lake and we are only allowed to access to certain sections of the wall. Notwithstanding that, the area gives you a different perspective of the wall and the scenery is breathtaking. It would take you about 2 hours to complete the trail around the lake.
Only certain sections of the Great Wall are open to public as some are very run down and not maintained which might be dangerous to climb.
After a day of trekking, I visited two beautiful places in China. I would prefer Huanghuacheng as it offers a rare sight of the Great Wall (and it is a pain in the butt to go there). Another interesting section of the Great Wall would be the Laolongtou Great Wall about 305km from Beijing where the Great Wall meets the sea. I will probably want to visit there the next time I visit Beijing.
The next post will bring us high up to one of the most sacred mountains in China (yes more trekking...). Till then, see ya!
The next post will bring us high up to one of the most sacred mountains in China (yes more trekking...). Till then, see ya!
