North of Beijing
Some sights are so familiar from photographs that you wonder whether the reality can possibly match them. The Great Wall is one of those, and it does. North of Beijing the wall climbs straight out of the trees and runs along the spine of the mountains as far as the eye can see, dipping into the valleys and rearing back up the next ridge, with a stone watchtower set on every high point. Standing on it, with the hills folding away into the haze on either side, is one of the great travel moments anywhere in the world.
We almost always steer travelers toward a restored stretch like Mutianyu, a beautifully rebuilt section with a cable car to carry you up to the ramparts and noticeably thinner crowds than the famous Badaling gate closer to the city. For those who want the wall a little wilder, we love a section like Jinshanling, where the towers stand half-tumbled and weathered and you can walk for an hour or more along the ridge with hardly another soul in sight. Either way, a private guide and the right timing make all the difference.
The walking is the joy of it, and also the part to plan for. The wall was built to follow the land, so it rises and falls in steep, uneven stone steps that can be taller than they look, climbing to a tower and dropping away again on the far side. We build the day around an early start from Beijing to reach the wall before the buses, leave plenty of time to simply stand and take it in, and pair it with the imperial heart of the city so the trip swings from the ancient frontier to the Forbidden City in a single sweep.
