I had high expectations for the Great Wall of China.
And if you’re anything like me, you’ll know that that’s usually a recipe for disappointment.
That’s one thing I’ve learned from my 15 years of travel: excitement is not always a good measure of a destination. Places I’ve spent years building up in mind often have me underwhelmed when I finally get there; like the reality can’t live up to my imagination. Meanwhile, some destinations I wasn’t all that fussed about quickly became some of my biggest travel highlights.
So I was particularly concerned about visiting the Great Wall of China, because, well, it’s the Great Wall of China. I was fully expecting it to blow my mind.
Now, the first thing you need to know about day-tripping out to the wall is that there’s a multitude of different sections that you can hike. The three main ones that tourists tackle are:
- Badaling: The most famous, and therefore the busiest, section of the wall
- Mutianyu: Quieter than Badaling, less strenuous, good for first-time visitors
- Jinshanling: The least crowded of the three, but a three-hour drive from Beijing
In my eyes, then, it was a no-brainer: Mutianyu sounded like a happy middle ground. Not too crowded, not too steep, and not too far from Beijing (a two-hour drive each way).
So what did I think?
In this post, I’ll be covering what it’s like to hike the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, how best to get there and back, which direction to walk in when you get there, and whether or not I think it’s worth it if you’re short on time.
Let’s get started.
It took roughly two hours to reach the Wall and upon arriving I was not excited to learn that we’d have to take a cable car up to the Wall, due to my fear of heights or anything that moves. My excitement levels grew, however, when I found out that we would be able to toboggan down at the end.
Our tour group was allotted four hours to spend on the wall – something that my friend and I were at first disappointed to hear, but were later grateful of when we realised just how much hard work it was.
The walk was surprisingly tough.
I had this romantic notion that I would spend the entire tour skipping gracefully along the Wall with daisies in my hair whilst rose petals fell from the sky. That I would spend many hours performing ancient Chinese rituals before befriending strange old Chinese men who would plop a hat on my head and pose for a photo of me.
Only one of these things actually happened.
At the time, I was not yet accustomed to the heat, so it was hard enough trying to walk anywhere without feeling like I was dying from severe fluid loss. When you then factor in the fact that there were no flat parts of the Wall – you were either walking upwards or downwards, I began to realise I might join the millions of people who died whilst building it.
Despite spending the past few months carrying backpack around and spending a substantial amount of my time walking around lost, I was surprised to realise that my fitness levels seemed to have actually worsened since leaving England.
I therefore spent 95% of my time on the wall sweating out every single millilitre of fluid in my body, and the remaining 5% was spent taking photos of the wall.
Once I had recovered from my heat exhaustion and dehydration the next day, I was able to look back on my experience on the Great Wall and forget about all the pain and stressful times and remember it as being a truly amazing day, and something that I was so glad to have done.
I spent a lot of time on the Great Wall reflecting on my trip so far. I can’t believe how much my plans have already changed from my original itinerary and I can’t wait to see what the future will hold. The Great Wall of China made me realise just how much I am enjoying my time in Asia and made me really think about whether I even want to go to Australia anymore. We’ll see what happens.
I’d love to go back to China again at some point and explore a new section of the wall, especially during winter to see how it compares.
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Makes you wonder how people actually patrolled this thing, doesn’t it? I climbed the Badaling section a few years ago in November, and I wound up sweating even then! Definitely not an easy hike, but SO totally worth it. Great photos!
Yeah, it’s really quite remarkable, isn’t it? I was surprised by how much of a workout my walk was, but as you say, it was absolutely worth it to be able to see such an iconic site with my own eyes (and walk on it with my own feet!)
My late grandfather always talks about how we should visit this someday, hopefully by next year i get to fulfill his wish. Him being originally from mainland China before ending up in the Philippines :)
What an amazing trip that would be, Marky, to help him finally cross it off his bucket list. It’s so much more mind-blowing in person than I thought it would be!
It sometimes cracks me up that we call it backpacking through Europe or Asia. Truth is the pack is actually on our shoulders only a few hours a week. Unless you make an effort to do fit activities, you can actually come back in worse shape especially if a lot of drinking is involved.
Beautiful photos of the wall. Despite the struggle, you will always have great memories of it.
That is funny, isn’t it? I remember before I left to travel, I was hitting the gym every day, trying to strengthen my back and my shoulders and my core, all in preparation for carrying my backpack. In reality, though, I probably only end up carrying it for half an hour or so each week!
A great a hiliarious write about an amazing thing to have done. Bravo!
Oh, thank you so much, William!
I went in winter. It was ridiculously cold and nearly impossible to keep your balance!
Oh yes, that’s not surprising, given how cold northern China gets in the winter months. I hope you didn’t end up falling over on the slippery steps because there’d be quite a few of them to slide down!
Wow, really nice photos! Can’t wait to get to China again in December :)
Thanks for stopping by, Nisa! And lucky you to be heading back to China so soon. I hope you have a great time :-)
Thanks for giving a shout-out to Mutianyu, which is the part of the wall that I decided to see. Some people say it’s the most boring part of the wall, but as you learned, it’s just as impressive!
Yeah, I really don’t know why people say that, as I thought it was just as impressive as the other parts of the wall I’ve been fortunate to have explored. For starters, it’s way less crowded than many of the alternatives, which is always a huge plus!
I want to go there while i’m still young and able to walk :D
There were plenty of elderly people trekking along on this part of the wall, but I definitely get what you mean: you can’t take your health for granted, so you should always try to do the hard things while you know you can!
Beautiful pictures! I really wasn’t expecting the blue skies, especially with all the smog in the air.
I’ve been to the Wall a couple of times and always loved it. In fact I would love to do the crazy thing and visit Simatai, one of the more rugged and ruined sections near Beijing. In fact I dream of following the entire wall from end to end – it would probably take a while though!
James, we are absolutely on the same page! I’d love to hike the length of the Great Wall sometime in my lifetime, too. Given that the furthest I’ve walked in one go is 300 miles and the Great Wall of China is, uh, 13,000 miles, I’m not sure it’s a particularly realistic goal to set!
And yes, I most definitely did luck out with the blue skies, although the smog is China is getting better each year, so it’s not as bad as it used to be.
I went to this section too but my pictures are nowhere near as good- alas it was one of those hazy Beijing days even 2 hours out. :(
My brother and I are insane though and we actually climbed all the way to the end, and were only a half hour late. :) Oh and I changed my trousers to shorts in one of the guardtowers you could go up in while he stood at the bottom to make sure no one would come up. Good times!
Oh, that’s such bad luck, Yvette! I always end up so disappointed when I end up at an iconic attraction and don’t have pristine blue skies to help make my photos pop.
Hey Lauren,
I went to Jinshanglin – Simatai section of the wall in winter, on chinese new year. The place was almost deserted, also the wall was in varied states of wear which really helped with the feeling of history. highly recommend it
Scot
Hi Scott! Thanks for dropping by. That’s good to know about the lack of crowds during the New Year, as it always feels so unpredictable as to whether the attractions will have more or less people at that time of year. Glad you had such a great time out there!
Great photos! I wore the green commie hat on my travels through Vietnam…it got me some big smiles from the locals.
I love that, Kurt! I’m so sad that I somehow managed to lose mine. Just another reason to return, I guess!
Looks like you had good weather for it, great photos!
I was so grateful for the blue skies! There’s nothing more frustrating than taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a world-famous attraction and not getting to see it at its best.
i am about to trek the wall with 42 other Fundraisers all for macmillan , we will be doing a 6 day trek , camping along route so looking forward to it not sure how fit i am but it will be a challenge just like the cancer i have beaten , so here goes- A SURVIVOR!!!
Didley, have the best time ever on your walk! Congratulations on beating your cancer and congratulations on conquering the Great Wall (because of course you’re going to do it!)