Beijing Travel Guide

Simatai Great Wall

It is about 180 km and takes two and half hours drive from Beijing to Simatai. The walk then takes between three and five hours. You can do the whole thing in one long day or go to the start of your walk at the end of the day, have dinner, sleep and get up at sunrise and do the walk. It will certainly be less crowded at that time. Sunrise is beautiful on a clear day and the wall can be amazing in foggy weather too.

Simatai is bigger, more developed and touristy than smaller Jinshanling, it is an easier starting point because its much easier and faster to get up onto the wall. If you want to sleep up on the wall there is a shop in a watchtower just above Jinshanling.

Built on precipitous mountain ridges, there are many places that are unmatched among other sections of Great Wall. The 'Heavenly Ladder' and the 'Sky Bridge' are particularly dangerous - they can make even the most intrepid tremble with fear.

SiMaTai is densely dotted with watchtowers; the nearest two are only 44m apart. The walls are in single, double and trapeze forms and the watchtowers are sometimes round in shape and composed of 2 or 3 floors. Even the roofs of the towers are diverse: some are flat, some cymbi form and some domical shapes.

There are two springs called the 'Mandarin Duck Springs' at the foot of SiMaTai Great Wall. The east one is cold, while the west is warm. The 2 springs join into one lake so half the lake is cold and the other half is warm. In winter, hot steam rises from the lake, forming a marvelous spectacle.

SiMaTai Great Wall is separated into two parts (east and west) by a valley. The west part is relatively gentle with 20 well-preserved watchtowers. The east part is steep and precipitous with 15 watchtowers on the 1000 m high peaks, making a journey you will never forget.

In the east part, the main attractions include Watching Beijing Tower, Fairy Tower, Heavenly Ladder and Sky Bridge.