2 Days Guided Jinshanling Great Wall Hiking

At 9:00 this morning, our expert guide will pick you up from the hotel you booked on your own in downtown Beijing and escort you to Jinshanling Great Wall on a 2-hour private transfer. If today falls on Chinese public holidays and weekends, we highly advise you to book the tour in advance. It will be around noon upon arrival. After settling in the hotel, have lunch at first and then we will kick off your epic hiking adventure. The Great Wall is an engineering miracle to cut off northern invasions through 2,000 years of concerted efforts of many dynasties, and the Ming Empire (1368 - 1644) has transformed it to a new level with expansions and solidifications. The Mutianyu, Badaling and Jinshanling were all Ming Great Walls. While the former two were greatly restored to take on their best looks, Jinshanling was intentionally left wilder, with time-eroded bricks and stones oozing original ancient charm.

After ticket-checking in the office right next to your hotel, we will first climb 30 minutes up to the nearest entrance, the Zhuanduokou Pass. Here stands a statue of Qi Jiguang, a prominent Ming-era military general known for defending his country against coastal pirates and fortifying the Jinshanling Great Wall, and we will pass under his eyes to reach further. The route we attentively prepared for you this afternoon is about 2 km (1.2 mi) long on the west side. It will need 2 hours or so to complete, taking into account your comfort level, the difficult parts and the periods to stop at certain sites and hear your guide’s commentaries and to take photos. We will head along from the Pass to Taochun Tower via four other defensive towers. At Taochun Tower, “the tower of spring peach blossoms”, there will be a melancholy story to unveil. It’s about how a girl affectionately called Taochun died from falling as she volunteered to carry drinking water up to the wall builders, and how people planted peach trees in a valley nearby to remember her. On our way back, see the rugged landscape dyed orange and yellow by the sunset.

Finally, you will be escorted back to the hotel for an overnight stay. As we will have more hiking tomorrow and get back after the check-out time, remember to pack your belongings, which would be left at the front desk tomorrow morning.

★ Enjoy Your Time in Jinshanling Great Wall Hotel
The hotel you will stay tonight is the ideal accommodation near the Jinshanling Great Wall. What will impress you most is their blue brick-paved courtyards in harmony with the traditional-style architecture, obviously designed so as to fit in the landscape of the scenic area. Inside, there are large windows to gaze at the Wall outside. You can cope with your lunch and dinner in an elegant restaurant on the second floor, with a cost of CNY 60 / USD 8.3 per person on average. Try Braised Tofu and Dough Drop Soup, their most popular dishes with local rural flavors. The service tends to be slow, but we can help you with pre-ordering if you need. Breakfast at the hotel is also impressively diverse for such a remote location. If it’s a clear evening, you can also look up to find a starry sky. Since resources here are limited, please expect simpler facilities than downtown 4-star hotels.

This morning, leave your baggage at the front desk and get ready for a 10-kilometer (3.1-mile) trekking odyssey through the east section of Jinshanling Great Wall. As we will stay high on the peaks for 5-6 hours into afternoon, it’s suggested you take some snacks in case you need to boost your energy en route. The east line is particularly what makes the Jinshanling part so alluring. You will experience more challenging slopes and visit more famous towers.

We will climb up from Zhuanduokou Pass as the first day, then progress eastward all the way through dozens of landmark buildings to the East Five-Window Tower. Our first highlight is the General Tower, the most representative watchtower of the entire Great Wall, and while standing on it you will play the commander-in-chief: the strategic vantage point ensures you watch enemy movements from all directions and you will learn from your guide how the tower’s rigorous integrated defensive system was used to handle enemies near or far, with beacon tower, horse-blocking wall and barrier walls. Intriguingly, there are also towers with names commemorating young women like Taochun who sacrificed themselves for the same cause. The Small and Big Jinshan Towers have their own stories as well. Reminiscent of the ancient architecture typical of southern China, these two towers were constructed so to soothe the homesick heart of the soldiers who were stationed here from the southern land. These stories and more from your guide will surely spice up your Jinshanling Great Wall tour. We will see fewer and fewer people from the Big Jinshan Tower. As we finally reach the East Five-Window Tower, go back to Houchuankou Pass and come down from there to reach the hotel. After collecting your baggage, we will transfer you back to the hotel you booked for yourself or a designated location in downtown Beijing.

Meals: Breakfast

► Friendly Tips
1. Please wear lightweight clothes and non-slip shoes suitable for hiking and climbing.
2. Jinshanling Great Wall is renowned as the best site for photograph among its likes, and May to October is the best time for that! It appears in all its magnificence in the morning and evening. Good luck to encounter a surreal beauty when the site is shrouded in mist, which often comes after the rain in summer and autumn.
3. Remember to bring warm layers for the cold morning and evening here. Also pay attention to sun protection in summer.
4. On your way back in the car, perhaps let your guide introduce Beijing’s culinary culture for dinner. There are many time-honored brands to offer authentic Beijing dishes and snacks and Huguosi Snack is one of those. If you’d like to try, ask to be dropped off at a branch that is near your hotel. Try their Fried Ring and Mullet Mush. It’s interesting to note that it’s a local tradition to eat Mullet Mush without chopsticks or a spoon, and you can live like a local to “drink” it and slurp. Average cost per person here is CNY 30 / USD 4.