Great Wall - Badaling, Beijing

Ok.. after going to Mutianyu, we had some time left so we wanted to see what a "tourist" Great Wall is like. hahahahaha

and serious enough, it's very "touristy".. every other step we took, there were ppl selling post cards.. and also stands for you to take photos.. hahaha

If you have slightly weaker knees, you may wish to stick to this part of the Great Wall. The floor is flatter compared to MuTianYu.. the "tiles" are smooth and you will have little risk of falling coz they are all very beautifully preserved.

All I can say is that if you are like unfit like us, then i would not advise doing 2 Great Wall trips in ONE DAY!!! Coz our feet almost gave way... and the only reason why we were even crawling was towards our DINNER!!!!! DA DONG ROAST DUCK!!!!!

A1 thing to do when in Beijing is to see the Great Wall. There are numerous sections that you can visit and plenty of ways of getting there. Ideally, you should try to see more than one section, if you can swing it.

I went to the Badaling section, which is the most commercial and restored section. It is probably the best place to start if it’s your first time. You can take a tour bus, but be prepared for many unscheduled stops at places that will want to vacuum your wallet clean. You can avoid all the headaches by renting your own taxi for the day. You should be able to secure one for around 400 to 600RMB, which includes all parking and tolls. I got my taxi for 500RMB and he drove me around for 9 hours. The cab was in great shape, he was nice and most importantly he was a safe driver. Feel free to be choosey about what taxi you pick. FYI, you will have to bargain to get a fair price. You can probably get someone at your hotel to help you communicate with the driver. Also, don’t pay until the end of the day.

Expect to use the whole day to go to any section of the wall. Drive time there will 2 to 3 hours. You should really walk the wall for a few hours to get a real appreciation of how great it really is.

Badaling is located at Yanqing County, more than 70 kilometers northwest from the center of Beijing City. It is a mountain pass of the Jundu Mountain. Badaling is at the highest point of north end of the Guan'gou gorge, in which the Juyongguan Pass lies. In the history, the function of Badaling was to protect the Juyongguan Pass.

I should explain a few things about my experience at the Great Wall. As I stated, I visited on a tour that had been booked through my hotel. The price included a visit to the Ming Tombs and the price of admission to both attractions. The atmosphere to the Badaling section was like a carnival, so much so that I consider it as almost a tourist trap. As for walking the wall, I was given a couple of hours unescorted to walk up to the highest point and back. This is a 5km walk in all. Bring good walking shows. Also be warned that the site is very crowded with tourists both from China and from all over the world. This means that you will have to be patient if you want to take the perfect unobstructed photograph. You will also find that parts of the walk can slow down because of the crowds that bottleneck near the battlements. You will pass four of these in all until you reach the top. All of this makes the Great Wall experience sound rather distasteful but remember this may be your only opportunity to see one of the great world monuments. As I warned you, to enjoy your time here, you should be patient.

2 more images

An image of the Great Wall of China is probably what comes to mind when most people think of China. This is highly justified for the Great Wall probaby best represents the magnificance of China's past and it's spirit. The pictures and carvings of dragons, which often represent China's might, are frequent in China, being seen on pottery decorations to nine dragon screens. The Great Wall, as it extends 6,353km, takes on the impression of dragon when seen from a bird's eye view (or space).
Centuries ago the Chinese, like other cultures often at war, built walls to defend their cities and strategic points. This was especially so during the period of the Warring States. When the great emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China in the 3rd century B.C. he began to also join together the various sections of the walls so that they became one unified wall. The wall was intended to defend China against invaders and raiders from the North. Turkic, Hunnic and Mongol tribes frequently struck out against the Chinese and for centuries the Wall was maintained to defend against them. During this period the wall was made out of earth, stones and timber. It represented the line between China proper and the foriegn lands populated by barbarians. During the Tang dynasty, who maintained a peaceful existence with it's neighbors, the Great Wall was allowed to deteriorate. It was during the Ming dynasty, who eyed the foreigners much more suspiciously, that the Great Wall was rebuilt with brick walls and 25,000 battlements. Over the years much of the Wall has again fallen into ruin but many of the more accessible sections have been extensively restored.
I visited the Great Wall by way of a tour arranged at my hotel (the most common method of visitation). Like most tourist, my tour headed to the Badaling section of the Wall. Here there is a rather distasteful carnival atmosphere but I was allowed to walk unescorted for two hours along 4km of the wall. I enjoyed the experienced.

This was my 2nd visit to the great wall (the first one was at Mutianyu - sp?).
Badaling was definetally more crowded for it's the closest to Beijing city.
Take your time exploring the wall. It's breath taking!

In Badaling we took cable car to go up and walked down the wall for about 2 hours until we find the exit gate where our car park. We did it to save time as there's still another place to visit.

The wall is really great. If I have a chance to return to Beijing I will go to another section which is less touristy and take time longer to enjoy the view.

Wellw hat can be said about this, its a wall, and its great! The Badling section was vey busy when I visited, its also a steep climb up on uneven steps so wear sensible footwear and bring water if its hot. Its a long steep climb if your unfit. I do beleive there is a section where you can get a cable car up but I didnt see this, maybe its another part. This part is restored, last restored in 1950's I think.

The tour I went on included "shopping". In other words we left the hotel ay 7:30 then went to a jade factory, a silk factory, a pottery factory, had dinner, went to the ming tombs, then went to a tea shop, then the great wall. So the "main event" was at the end of the day and we only actually got an hour on the wall. Got back to teh hotel at 7:30 in the evening. If I were going again go on the NO shopping trip!