Forbidden City Or The Great Wall Of China?

Last August we managed to visit Beijing again and had to make a choice between the Forbidden City or the Great Wall. We didn’t have time to do both (plus we’ve visited both sights before), and since the Forbidden City had hundreds of people waiting in line, the Great Wall it was! It would be our second visit – and probably our last (at least the part near Beijing).

This famous landmark is found on several “must-do-lists”; must-do before you die; must-visit landmarks; must-visit in China … and so forth. So naturally the Great Wall really should be visited at least once in a lifetime. Or even twice.

Our first visit to the Great Wall turned out to become our worst nightmare because we landed on a package tour. We don’t like package tours at all, and we learned from our mistake. So to to avoid all that, we decided to take the public bus.

How To Get To The Great Wall Of China By Public Transport.

Get out of metro line Nr. 2 at the station Dongzhimen and continue to exit B (be careful not to mess it up with the airport line). From here you just go to the bus station to your left and look for bus Nr. 916 to Huairou. We can’t remember what the bus charged for the trip, but it was really cheap.

The ride takes about 1.5 hour. It’s best to tell the driver that you want to go to Mutianyu Great Wall. This part of the Wall is approximately 70km northeast of Beijing. Actually you’d assume that they know where where a tourist heads to, but just in case the driver is a bit absent, tell him anyway.

Once you get off, there’ll be minivans or cabs waiting for visitors. To save money, simply share one with fellow bus passengers who’re also on a self-guided tour. The cab price is negotiable, but it was around 15 US$. 20 minutes later and you’re at one of the most iconic landmarks of our planet.

Your next step is getting an entrance ticket. Unless you’re willing to crawl through thick bushes to avoid the ticket inspector, there’s no way around buying one. Still, you have a few options:

• A return cable car ticket (for the lazy ones)
• A single cable car ticket (walking one direction, or an alternate method of descent by single-rider personal wheeled toboggan)
• Walking both directions (which means avoiding the crowds lining up for the cable car ride)

We Finally Arrived At The Great Wall Of China.

It was a hot August morning and we were one of the first visitors, which was a nice change from busy Beijing. We’re pretty fit, so we decided to skip the cable car. Walking up all these stairs wears you out, so next time, we’d take a single-way ticket – though this also means that one should be there early, otherwise the waiting line is very very (very!) long. You can also buy a single ticket up at the Wall, but it’s more expensive, so make sure you know in advance what you want to do.

Walking along the Great Wall itself is pretty easy, only the crowds can be a bit annoying at times – especially if you want to take photos without people (which is almost impossible after 10.00 am).

Resume Of Our Visit To The Great Wall Of China.

Of course the Great Wall of China is a must visit! After all, it’s one if the most impressive structures ever build by humans. But next time we’d to travel to Jinshanling (approx. 130km northeast of Beijing) or Jiayu Pass (Western part), simply because you’ll come across less tourists. This is one of the things that really bother us about China: Mass-tourism. It makes even the most amazing area or sight overcrowded and un-charming…

A Few Fact Of The Great Wall Of China.

• Chinese Name: Wann Li Channg-Ch’ng (meaning: Long Wall of 10.000 Li)
• Length: The wall’s length – without its branches and other secondary sections – was thought to extend for some 6.690 km (4.160 miles)
• Built: Construction of the earliest sections began during in 770 – 476 B.C.
• Completed: By the time construction on most of the stone-and-brick Great Wall, with its turrets and watchtowers, was completed during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
• Visitors: Approximately 10 million each year
• Myth: It’s said that the Great Wall of China is the only human-built structure that can be seen from space. But it’s not true. The reality is that you can’t easily see the Great Wall from low Earth orbit with the naked eye – you need some serious equipment to do so…

With a history of more than 2.000 years, some of the sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 8.851 km from east to west of China.

The Wall we see today was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). It starts from Hushan in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west traversing Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai.

The Great Wall of China is the greatest tourist attraction in China and approximately 10 million people visit this landmark each year.

A bunch of happy officers at the Great Wall in China during our first visit.

For a lazy couch-potato it might be the right thing to browse through some “let’s flyaway” websites, on which the right destination will be found soon for sure; of course all inclusive, paid via the internet, with the invoice printed in the same moment. Now you only have to wait until the departure day arrives, pack up a few things and that’s it. There’s nothing more to do. Once you’re at the airport, you can start scanning your fellow travel buddies at the departure gate and start choosing some possible holiday flings as well.

That can’t be all, can it?!

But luckily there are other ways to start a vacation as a travel photographer: Scanning the atlas is a good start, because after all, there are many places yet to be discovered. For example the Austral Islands. We came across these tiny islands somewhere South of French Polynesia. But actually getting there took more than a few evenings of checking relevant websites (all in French, so we could prove our high school French skills at the same time). No sooner said than done, we started our 48 hour journey to French Polynesia…. And only one day after arriving in Papeete, we continued to the Austral islands. Since we were up for an adventure, instead of waiting for the next passenger ferry, we hopped onto the cargo ship, which provides these islands with all the goods the people need every couple of weeks. It was a smooth trip but turns out, we were quite lucky. Just a couple of days earlier, the ship had to conquer giant monster waves that crushed its hull. Must have been one hell of a trip…

Something like this would definitely never ever happen on a package tour. These “normal” tours are on the safe side most of the times … unless of course you’re captain thinks he’s a big shot and wants to impress some cute blonde waitress for example – then you’re relaxing honeymoon vacation can turn into a real nightmare. Still, in most cases, the greatest excitement comes along when you find a cockroach in the shower, and then the booking company can fasten their seatbelts, because heavy complaining will come up… Come to think of it, are package tours any fun at all?

We’ve had our share of horrible package tours.

A really strange (and that’s actually a nice word here) experience that we encounter was during a booked trip to the Great Wall of China from Beijing. We stayed in one of these hotel chains and due to limited time, we thought it might be better to book a tour, instead of getting there ourselves (plus it was also our first visit to China). Big mistake, as we already found out an hour later when the bus turned into a huge shopping centre full of Jade shops. It was an unwanted stop for half an hour, yet still most people actually bought something?! The guy in charge wanted us to go inside as well, but Jade simply doesn’t do it for us…

So after about 30 minutes, the bus continued to the Great Wall and just as we arrived, we were told to be back in one hour because lunch was provided somewhere else. No idea why but we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. So after walking around a little bit, we returned to the bus as the last ones of course, which didn’t help in bonding with our fellow travellers. Anyway, the drive only took about 10 minutes until we turned into a gigantic (it really was gigantic) complex. We got out and were led into a waiting room, not the slightest idea what was going to happen next…

Well, turns out that before we could have lunch, we got a doctor’s consultation. 3 men in white robes entered the room with an interpreter explaining that we can get a medical check now and further more, get a prescription for Chinese medicine. Wft?! The doctors stated asking people if they had any bone aching, stomach problems, high blood, diabetes, sleeplessness or any other general sicknesses. And, believe it or not, most of the tourist admitted some problems and were happy that these doctors had solutions for everything. Heck, if I would have told these “Gods in White” that I had a brain tumour, I’m sure they would have given me some magical snake slime mixed with horse hair to make things better. So anyway, they started selling all kind of herbs and this was the time when we escaped again, with the excuse (we didn’t want to offend anyone) that we were healthy as a child … but instead of being happy for us, the tour leader gave us a grim look.

Anyway, the food was a bit dreadful as well. We sat at round tables and a huge pot was placed in the middle, which caught our attention. We opened the lid and an entire boiled rooster stuck out … that must have been the Chinese version of chicken soup, It might not have been so bad, but we mostly stuck to rice.

After arriving back in our hotel, we said never ever again … yet we did come across another package tour in Vietnam once (Ha Long Bay), but that’s another horror story I want to spare you of.

What about you? Any experiences with package tours?

We never really saw one in action either … not even writing tickets, stopping cars or checking people. But if you’re in China, the tension can be felt immediately…

But, as you will see in the photo below, even the grimmest looking person, smiles at some point :D These young officers were obviously only at the beginning of their career and visited the Great Wall just like us…

Young officers at the Great Wall in China.

An officer in front of the Lost City in Beijing.