Great Wall of China day trip from Beijing: A self planned travel guide
I have always been curious about China, a country with ancient history much like India. Although modern day political situations led to lesser direct interaction apart from trade between these two Asian giants, historically there has always been significant cultural exchange right from when the Silk Route was prominent.
We also always enjoyed the bustling energy of Chinatowns in other large Asian countries we’ve been to and loved the Cantonese culture in Hong Kong, it was only time that we had to actually head to China to explore the real deal. We finally ended up in China, spending about 10 days in Beijing and Shanghai.
During our trip, one of the highlights was a day trip to the MutianYu section of the great wall of China.
Planning a Great Wall of China day trip from Beijing can feel overwhelming. In this guide, I share how my wife and I planned and visited the Mutianyu section on our own, including transport options, ticket tips, and what to expect.
Ironically, it was after one of our routine summer weekend visits to Chinatown in Dubai Mall of all places that Meghana and I decided to finally plan a trip to Mainland China. Then began the research about visa requirements, budgeting, building an itinerary and figuring out all the peculiarities we’ve been hearing about travel in China. Turns out, it's not that complicated.
Things to know before traveling to China (Payments, VPN, Language)
There are three things that differentiate travel within China from the rest of the world and easy workarounds are available for all of them.
1. Payments: China is largely a digital payments economy. While Cash payments are still possible, it may get very difficult for shopkeepers to return exact change and some refuse straightaway. Install either Alipay or WeChat and link your credit card before you travel to China and you are sorted, we installed both but prefer WeChat since it also is the primary texting app here.
2. Internet and Apps: Like the Great Wall, China is also famous for its great firewall. Most apps used on a daily basis in the rest of the world (WhatsApp, You tube, Mails, Instagram, Google Maps etc.) are blocked in China. You’d have to buy a reliable VPN subscription to use these.
3. Language: This is by far the biggest problem here, much more than other South and Far East Asian Countries. A very good translation app, preferably audio translation ones and a lot of patience is required for both parties involved in any communication.
I will write a detailed post later about few quirks of these China only apps and workarounds based on our experience. This post in particular is about our day trip from Beijing to the Mutianyu Section of the Great wall. Of all the places we wanted to see, Great Wall was definitely a priority. There is already a ton of information about various sections of the great wall and ways to reach in the internet, I am narrating what worked best for us in case you’d like to use this as a reference.
Which Section of the Great Wall of China should you visit from Beijing?
There are various sections of the Great wall that are accessible to public in various parts of China. Of these, sections closest to Beijing (Badaling and Mutianyu) are easiest to access. Badaling section is usually very crowded as it is closest to Beijing and has multiple public transport options. A quick YouTube search of Badaling section's crowd during Chinese holidays was enough to convince us to visit the less crowded and farther Mutianyu section.
There are three main ways to reach Mutianyu section of the great wall from Beijing- Private return taxi (costs between $60-100 per person), public transport that involves couple of bus changes and a taxi in the last leg, tourist bus on Klook or trip.com which would pick up and drop in Beijing and lets you do your thing once you reach the base of Mutianyu.
We chose to book a shared bus tour via klook (You can book the same in Klook here) which dropped us at the Base of Mutiyanu and picked us back once we returned from the hike. Based on our experience of similar shared bus tours to DMZ in South Korea, we figured this would work out best for us. We also had a Chinese friend who recommended this option as well.
There are lot of bus operators with diverse offerings in Klook and trip.com, we chose a tour operated by Zan bus which cost us about $20 per person. This includes the commute and came with a spirited English-speaking guide who explained the history of the Great wall and tips for a good hike.
What to do Once you reach Mutianyu (Great Wall Entry & Access guide)
Regardless of which option you choose to reach Mutianyu (Private Taxi, Public Transport or Tour Bus), you’d be dropped off at the parking and you are on your own till the pick-up time. There are a few tickets required to access various parts of the great wall, we bought it in the Bus enroute to Mutianyu but are also available at the parking.
1. Pay for an entrance ticket by registering your passport details, scan your passport at the entry gates to be let through .
2. Once inside, the base of the great wall is further away, we took a shuttle bus in the interest of skipping the already rising crowd. Alternatively, you can walk from here which would take 30 mins.
3. Once at the base of the Mutianyu great wall, you would have to climb to Tower-6 or 14, either hike through the mountain path to reach Tower-6 or take the ropeway. Same to the other side (Tower-14). Walking is quite steep and is not scenic, moreover you would get tired by the time you reach the actual wall on which you would actually need to walk, we’d recommend to just take the ropeway. We took the ropeway up to tower-6, hiked along the wall to Tower-3 and back.
4. Tourists can walk all the way to the other end and take the cable car down from tower-14 or take the Toboggan ride from Tower-6 back to the base and take a cable car round trip to tower-14. We chose the Mutianyu Toboggan ride, which we had seen in several videos, this one is super fun and a must do experience. We took the cable car to Tower-14, hiked till Tower-20.
It took us a about four hours to explore the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, including hiking and enjoying the viewpoints, and have enough time to grab a bite at the base. The Zan Bus guide was waiting patiently for us with the trademark Chinese tourist group flag. The elderly from various nationalities took a while to reach while the initially enthusiastic young hotshots showed signs of overexertion huffing and panting as they rushed to the bus having walked instead of taking a shuttle.
Middle age folk like us and a few other from Europe smirked with glee about our wisdom when the hotshots were complaining that the walk was worthless and should have taken the shuttle instead.
The two-hour long drive back to Beijing was spent in silence, partly owing to exhaustion and the rest in silent reflection as neither me nor my wife thought in our wildest dreams that we would actually walk on the Great Wall of China, one of the seven wonders of the world which we only read about in School.
Great pictures 👌👌👌👌👌 Your photo s have planted a seed of thought...🥰
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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