There are many tours for different sections of the Great Wall of China. I was looking for one which included hiking along the wall so I decided to book this tour online. The tour agency emails you to ask for your contact details beforehand and informed us via Whatsapp that our pick-up from the hotel would be at 6.30 AM. The tour bus is quite big with capacity for around 80 people. It was around 8 AM when we were done picking up other groups. It was then a 2-hour drive to Gubei Water Town Hotel and the guide gives some info on the schedule. He also calls out some names to hand out water and some bread if a snack was included in your tour ticket. There was also a quick stop at a gas station for some rest in between. At the hotel, some people get off and stayed in the town for another tour. The rest of us are given some time to use the restroom at the hotel and walk to the river for some pictures. It’s a beautiful small town and it looked like a great place to stay for a night if you have the time.
We then get back on the bus and continue for another 30 minutes to Jinshanling arriving at 10.50 AM. The guide then talks about the hike up and asks those who want to take the cable car up to the wall. This was not included in the ticket so he needs to know before buying the tickets. Once that is sorted out, there is a train buggy that takes everyone up to the entrance and cable car station which is a 10-minute ride up. After getting our tickets validated, those who bought cable car tickets head to the station and everyone else hikes up to the wall along the trail. Before setting out on the trail, the guide tells everyone where the meeting point will be after the 3-hour hike. He says we can all walk at our own pace and that he will walk at the end to make sure no one gets left behind. The path to the wall takes about 20 minutes and it is easy to follow. There weren’t many tourists but there was a school trip going up to the wall so it was quite busy. We got to the top of the wall at around 11.40 AM and the views from here were amazing. After taking a couple of pictures we set out on our hike.
The wall goes up and down meandering through the mountain tops. Some of the steps are quite high so it can be quite tiring. There are several towers on the way where you can stop to get some rest in the shade. It was very hot when we went with temperatures reaching around 32 degrees, so make sure you take lots of water. There are many great views along the way as you see the wall stretching for miles into the horizon. Most of the wall in this section has been restored, but there are a few parts that are in ruins and a little tricky to walk through. We arrived at the meeting point at around 2.15 PM and waited for about 15 minutes for the rest of the group to arrive.
We then followed the guide on the trail to the parking lot where the tour bus was waiting for us. This trail was a dirt path going through the trees. There were quite a lot of insects and mosquitos so make sure to take repellant. It took about 30 minutes to get back down and then we got back on the tour bus to head for lunch. They took us to a tourist restaurant nearby for a buffet-style lunch. We were done with lunch at around 4.30 PM and then headed back to Beijing. There was a lot of traffic in the city so we reached the Qianmen area at around 7.30 PM.
