Part #7: The Great Wall is Truly Great

Part #1: Off to China
Part #2: The Joys of Hilton Gold
Part #3: Getting a Chinese Visa
Part #4: Exploring the Hutongs
Part #5: A Walk in the Park
Part #6: Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

The Great Wall is truly great. I mean it’s fucking great. Like mind-blowing, ass-kicking, I-can’t-believe-I’m-seeing-this-in-person great. It is one of the main reasons my sister and I decided to go China. It’s been on my bucket list for years. And it lived up to my expectations.

Scratch that. It exceeded my expectations.

The Great Wall of China is huge. It stretches for hundreds of miles and there are many different places you can see the Great Wall. The most popular tourist area is Badaling – it’s closest to Beijing and most accessible by public transportation. But it’s also crawling with tourists.

From the get go, I know I wanted to do an actual hike (not a walk) and visit a less touristy part of the wall.

As we began our research, it seemed like there were hundreds of guides to choose from, and we had no idea how to choose one from the other, or even which location to choose. Somehow, we stumbled on Dandelion Hiking, which does group hikes for a fraction of the cost of other companies and received good reviews on Trip Advisor. The owner was very responsive and spoke excellent English. And so even though no one else signed up for the hike (it was late November after all), we decided to stick with them and do a private hike. It cost us $150 per person which is comparable to all the other companies out there.

Our guide was a Belgian fellow named Jan who was just perfect. He and his driver picked us up from our hotel at 9:30 a.m. on the dot. His English was great; he answered all of our questions (even the stupid ones); and he took a ton of pictures of us, even when we insisted on doing silly poses that would try any normal person’s patience. Sadly, Jan informed us that he was going back to Europe in a couple of days, but I’d still recommend Dandelion Hiking. They were phenomenal.

Our trusty guide, Jan, taking pictures of us.

Jan recommended a hike called Chen Castle, slightly northeast of Badaling. It was perfect. It started with a steep hike up to reach the wall which tested our lungs and legs. But when we got to the top after much huffing and puffing, it was all awe and amazement and me shrieking, “We’re at the Great Wall of China!”

Starting out. You can see the Great Wall all the way at the tippy top.

Reaching the Great Wall after 1,300 feet of climbing.

Showing off my yoga skills. Or skill. That is the only cool yoga pose I can do.

It helped that we literally had the Great Wall of China to ourselves. There was not another person or vehicle in sight for miles and miles.

The steep climb up was the hardest part. After that, there were a few hills, but we mostly walked along the Great Wall admiring the view and snapping hundreds of pictures. And I do mean hundreds.

And of course, here is my requisite cartwheel pose. It’s not the most graceful cartwheel, but I’m about twenty years out of practice.

Let me conclude by saying, the Great Wall of China is amazing, and worth a trip to Asia. I’d recommend going in the spring or fall, though we managed just fine with the temperature hovering around 50 degrees. Dandelion Hiking does a variety of trips you can choose from, some which include camping out overnight on the Great Wall.