Nearly everyone has heard of the huge stone wall known as the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was built to protect the Chinese Empire from invaders.

Reasons to go there

This wall is huge and definitly worth seeing. When we reached there , we noticed we were the only ones from a foreign country, the rests were locals.

We went to the Badaling section where you have nice views and can walk up the hill for quite some height. The left part of the Badaling wall is steeper but gives a better scenery of the wall.

Badaling, located at Yanqing County 70 km northwest of Beijing, is about 5 km long with 19 watchtowers. The wall extends from peak to peak and is made of rectangular slabs, standing eight to ten meters high, six meters wide at the base and five meters wide at the ramparts.

Tips

Badaling and Juyongguan are nearest to Beijing, most crowded and touristy and these two sections have been heavily rebuilt. These sites can be visited in one day starting from Beijing. Travel Beijing and go there!

Be aware of bus scams that may ruin your day. You may want to bring a jacket against the wind or cold in the chillier season - in the summer you will need lots of water, there are plenty of vendors at the most visited sections.

How to get there

Do not go for organized tours to the Great Wall in the 100-150 Yuan range that are advertised by people handing out flyers around the Forbidden City in Beijing for example (the real bus service to the Great Wall only costs 20 Yuan!). Also, the driver might just stop and set you off before your destination. Only pay afterwards!

Take Bus919 - it is a cheap local bus, but really great an comfortable. Or take tourist bus No. 1 at Front Gate, No. 2 at Beijing Railway Station, the west gate of Beijing History Museum, No. 3 at East Bridge, No. 4 at Xizhi Gate or Beijing Zoo, No.5 from the west Taxi station at the Front Gate, No.8 from AnDingmen or Qianmen station. As it is well reachable in a short time, one can say Badaling is an attraction or sight of Beijing.

Infos

The Great Wall of China can be visited at many places along its length of several thousand kilometers. Its condition ranges from excellent to ruined and access from straightforward to quite difficult.

The Great Wall is a maximum 9.1m (30 ft) wide and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it. Still, the apparent width of the Great Wall from the moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 2 miles away. Not surprisingly, no lunar astronaut has ever claimed seeing the Great Wall from the moon.
View all our Photos of the Great Wall

We postet all our photos of the Great Wall at Badaling at findoutwheretogo.com. We hope they help for your Beijing trip. Travel Beijing - it´s an amazing city!
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