Every traveler has a bucket list.

One of those items, like many adventurous travelers, is hiking on the Great Wall of China. Yet, after a year of living in China, I had yet to visit Beijing, the easiest city access point. Just last month, Julie found out she had to attend a work conference in Beijing, which provided the perfect excuse to make the journey north. I actually initially dismissed the option to trek out to the Great Wall because Julie would not be able to join me. But she said I would be crazy not to go, we would be right there, and bucket list items must be honored.

What can I say, Julie is the best.

Getting to the Great Wall from Beijing

Most visitors who want to see the Great Wall during their visit to Beijing do it this way: join one of the many buses that depart from Deshengmen (德胜门) in the heart of the Beijing and head towards the Badaling (八达岭) section. It is easy to understand why. It is inexpensive, only an hour ride away, and is one of the best preserved stretches of the Great Wall. However, it is also the most popular entrance, by far.

There are a whole network of buses that descend upon Badaling each day. If you happen to be visiting during a major holiday or busy weekend, you will no doubt be checking off your bucket list item while shuffling shoulder-to-shoulder with other tour groups and visitors.

Can we all agree this sounds stressful and less magical than a visit to the freaking Great Wall of China should be?

The Great Wall Hiking Tour

My goal was to get a different experience at the Great Wall, you know, maybe even capture a few peaceful moments, the kind you see in a picturesque postcard of a famous locale, but can never seem to find yourself. So I decided to skip the tour buses altogether and signed up for a 1-day, small group hiking tour with Great Wall Hiking, from Simatai West to Jinshanling.

My tour began near the Dongzhimen metro station with our enthusiastic guide, Tao, and the other two guests. We hopped in the waiting van for our journey out to Simatai West. The drive took a full 2 hours, during which time we got to know each other, swapping travel stories, and expat tales (one of the other guests was an expat in Bangkok). Tao recapped a short history of China and the construction of the Great Wall. Once we reached the outer areas of Beijing, the city disappeared and the lush, mountainous countryside opened up.

We arrived at the Simatai West entrance, to find an almost empty parking lot. Despite being a smaller entry point, there was still plenty of infrastructure in place to handle massive crowds, with a large public area, multiple ticketing windows, public bathrooms, and ample parking for hundreds of cars and buses. But on this day, we found ourselves the only people at the entrance.

Tao swiftly procured our tickets, showed us on the trail map the route we’d be taking and talked a little more about the Great Wall. From there, we began our steep and stair-heavy 45 minute hike up the trail towards the access point. Within a few minutes though, I caught my first glimpse of the wall, weaving along the edge of the mountain.

(The photo below gives a really accurate picture of the stairs leading to the wall. They are well maintained but there are a ton!)

We reached the wall at the Five-Window Tower, stepped through a gate and climbed a few final steps up onto the wall. I could see for miles in both directions, not a soul in sight. The scale of the project hit hard, the horizon dotted with towers as far as we could see. Now, THIS is the Great Wall experience I had been hoping for.

The next 3 hours was spent traversing from Simatai West towards Jinshanling. This section had a few steep ascents and descents, that made walking on the smooth stones a bit tricky. But overall, the hike wasn’t strenuous or difficult, and we went at quite a leisurely pace. I felt the need to stop constantly to take more photos of each new twist or turn, grabbing yet another view out of the windows of the over 50 watchtowers we passed through.

We walked and talked and took pictures and stopped for a snack. Tao was at the ready with details about this section of the wall. We basked in being nearly alone on one of the world’s most important monuments.

Now THIS, this was a bucket list worthy day.

We exited the wall at Jinshanling, and followed the well manicured public pathway back to the exit and parking lot. As we got closer to Jinshanling, we saw more people, but no large crowds like I had feared. Tao informed us that Great Wall Hiking does this tour in the reverse direction from most tours. That allowed us to enter at the less busy section and enjoy a relaxing stroll before exiting at a more popular gate.

The local authorities are building up the Jinshanling access point, with a large hotel and retail stores under construction. There is even a shuttle bus system that delivered us down to the nearest parking lot. I am happy to report that on the day I visited (a weekday in April) this access point was pleasantly less crowded than expected.

Our final stop of the day was at a local restaurant for a late lunch. Tao called ahead and ordered, so the food starting coming up shortly after we arrived. We sampled a variety of stir fry dishes, including spicy green peppers with pork, pork with onions, kung pao chicken, and a tofu and minced pork dish. The food was tasty, and Tao took a few minutes to fill out our official Great Wall Hiking certificates. I might put this on my fridge back in Shenzhen.

Two hours later, we were back in bustling Beijing.

It is hard to pick the right adjectives to describe my experience of the Great Wall. Impressive, ancient, stately, peaceful, and daunting come to mind. Like all the most beautiful places in the world, the photos do not do it justice.  I was happy to check this one off my bucket list, and even happier that I chose to do it with Great Wall Hiking.

Walking down an empty stretch of one of the world’s greatest wonders is something I will remember for a long time.