Beijing Travel Guide
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| GuBeiKou Great Wall |
Gubeikou
The farther from Beijing we traveled, the less populated the wall became. The only person we saw at the crumbling section in the village was a farmer. No vendors, no admission, nothing. We followed a signless trail over a dry riverbed and under terraced chestnut trees to reach a decaying section of the wall that had not been rebuilt for tourists. Sandy soil, rows of corn along it, a sea of mountains in the distance.
To the north of Tiger Mountain is a huge solitary piece of rock, which has in it an indentation one meter in diameter and 20 cm deep called the Spring of Heaven. The water from this spring flows continuously in both the rainy and fry seasons. Near the spring is a defense tower called the Five Eyes Tower. Unique in design, the body of the tower is made of rectangular stone blocks and the roof of polished bricks. Inside there are two large barrel-vaulted ceilings, three corridors, 10 arched openings and a central octagonal dome supported by four brick columns arranged in a square. The stone columns are decorated with relief carvings of flowers, which add a touch of elegance to this otherwise austere building. Standing atop this tower, one can see the Great Wall winding its way along the contours of the mountains. From this vantage point, the wall appears like a ribbon of jade linking the Wuling Mountain (the highest peak of the Yanshan Range) with the Sleeping Tiger Range.
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| Simatai Great Wall |
Simatai
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.
