Great Wall - Mutianyu, Beijing

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When I arrived at Mutianyu parking area, I had three options to reach to the Great Wall. First, I could take the Cable Car from the North Entrance. Second, I could walk the trails. Third, I could go Cableway, and return by the Slideway from the South Entrance.

Well, I was given 3 hours to explore this Great Wall. My target was to visit Zheng Guan Tai and Big Corner Tower. I did not think I had enough time to walk the trails. If I ride with the Cable Car from the Northern Entrance, I might not have enough time to walk to Big Corner Tower, which is located on the east side of the Wall. So, I took the Cableway to reach the wall, and came down by the Slideway at the Southern Entrance.

Slideway is an unique ride as I had not see it in some other attractions. Basically, it is a winding metal track that slide you down to the bottom of the hill. It could be fun to ride it, but it takes time to queue for your turn as it has only one seat for each ride. If you have time constrain, you can always take the Cableway down.

Ticket Fare: Y80 (Return)

Opening Hours: Summer (7:30-17:30)
Winter (8:00-16:30)

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China Stone Museum is also called " China Dream Stone City" is located between the North Entrance and and Southern Entrance of the Mutianyu Great Wall. The admission is inclusive in the Mutianyu ticket. It is a Chinese garden with natural stones shapes like camels, turtles, old man, and etc that related to Chinese poems. The most interesting part is the cave with lime stones decorated with colorful lights. There were several pavilions with lakes typical Chinese garden. By reading the signboard, I think if you choose to walk up to Great Wall, this could be the great place to start the trail.

In Chinese: 中华梦石城 (Zhong Hua Meng Shi Cheng)

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Zhengguantai has a unique ancient architectural building as part of the Mutianyu Great Wall. In fact, it is empty inside. You could go up to the second floor to have a great view of Mutianyu Great Wall.

The signboard was written as:

" The sohriquet is " SanZuoLou" it was built in the second year of the reign of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1404 BC). As a gateway, the three blocks houses that were connected as a whole building. It has two stories. The lower story is a passageway and the upper one has three observation pavilions. It separates a main section and a side one. This structure is quite rare in construction of the whole Great Wall."

In Chinese: 正关台 (Zheng Guan Tai)

Don't miss..

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The Great Wall was started by the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty more than 2000 years ago and built upon over the next 1500 years. Much of what we see today dates to the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century). Its better preserved and it has endured because of the bricks used.
It is the largest man-made structure on earth and can be seen from Space.

Mutianyu is one of several sections easily visited from Beijing. It is the second most popular area after Badaling. here, one can see several Ming watch towers as well as impressive stretch of wall.
The Great Wall was built as a defense against nomadic intrusions from the north.

One can either hike up the mountain or take a cable car. There are seperate admissions to both the wall itself and the cablecar. Along the way, there are numerous souviner stalls manned by hawkers selling tee-shirts and a wide variety of other items. Prepare to bargain.

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You read and hear about the Great Wall of China all your life and to see it and actually walk on it was no.1 on my bucket list.
At the Mutianyu portion as the other section of the wall has been restored but to right of the staging area there's a section that's 1,400 yrs old that you can walk and at the end there a lookout tower that has crumbled and here you can walk on the unrestored sections.I was speachless to walk the unrestored section.
Walking into history and time.

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Here are a few more pictures of the cable car and the toboggan sled; also of the countryside from the top of the Great Wall. We had picture perfect weather that day. Enjoyed our sandwich lunch at the top of the steps near a Watchtower. We met another couple there from Brussels and they took some great pics of us.

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We hired a taxi driver to take us to the Mutianyu part of The Great Wall for the entire day. He drove to a parking area and walked us up to the ticket booth. We were assured that he would be in his taxi exactly where he had parked it when we were finished. And he was. We were taken up to the wall on a Cable Car.
This part of the wall has a wheeled toboggan ride that comes down on a metal track that winds along the hillside and ends up back at the entrance. There is a brake on the toboggan and when it starts out there is a level area that allows a bit of practice to get the feel of how it works. We had a slow poke in front of us so we didn't have a chance to let it "fly". Probably just as well. It was a great experience. Part of our admission ticket included the extra for the toboggan.
Mutianyu was built in the 6th century as the northern barrier to defend the capital and the Imperial tombs. The walls were built of granite and are 7-8 metres high and 4-5 metres wide.
We took a lunch with us to eat while we walked this tremendous wall. Some of the steps are 18 inches high. We were in good physical shape and didn't tire or have difficulty while we were climbing up or down. I try to do steps at home two or three times a week. My legs were not sore the next day because of my diligent exercise routine.
Watchtowers are placed along this section of the Great Wall. The outer and inner parapets are crenelated with merlons so shots could be fired on either side. At the Mutianyu Pass there are 3 watchtowers, a large one in the center and two small ones on each side. This area of the countryside is 90% forested - very nice to see in the fall.
Outside the entrance is the namesake village where there are a lot of stalls with all kinds of things to buy. We were taken with the beautiful dried Kiwi. There were of course T shirts and tons of other touristy stuff.
We were told this part of the wall doesn't get the enormous amount of visitors that the Badaling part gets. We were there in early November and we found that to be true.

Ok, after reading some many tour books, we decided to go to the Mutianyu section of the wall, and we are so glad we did. We had the wall all to ourselves for more than 4 hours, ON A FRIDAY !!!!!!! it was great. Of course it is in the middle of now where, but well worth the 2 hour drive from Beijing. Admission fee was a mire 30 RMB with a 30 RMB ride up the gondola to the top of the wall. We took a tour guide, but nothing a tour guide could say would prepare you for the site itself.......trust me the WALL speaks for itself !!!!! Take or buy plenty of water and be ready for a workout like you haven't had in a long time !!!! Well worth it.....would happyily pay 10 times as much to see this...It is one of the most impressive sights anywhere on PLANET EARTH !!!!!!!