Almost everyone has heard of the massive stone wall known as the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was built to protect the Chinese Empire from invaders.
Reasons to go there
This wall is huge and definitely worth seeing. When we got there, we noticed that we were the only ones from a foreign country, the others were local.
We went to the Badaling section where you have nice views and you can go up the hill quite high. The left side of the Badaling wall is steeper but offers better scenery from the wall.
Badaling, located in Yanqing County 70 km northwest of Beijing, is about 5 km long and has 19 watchtowers. The wall extends from peak to peak and is made up of rectangular slabs, eight to ten meters high, six meters wide at the base, and five meters wide at the walls.
Advice
Badaling and Juyongguan are the closest to Beijing, the busiest and the most touristy, and these two sections have been largely rebuilt. These sites can be visited in one day from Beijing. Travel to Beijing and go there!
Be aware of bus scams that can ruin your day. You may want to bring a jacket against the wind or cold in the colder season; in the summer you will need a lot of water, there are many vendors in the most visited sections.
How to get there
Don’t take organized tours to the Great Wall in the 100-150 yuan range advertised by people handing out flyers around the Forbidden City in Beijing, for example (the actual bus service to the Great Wall is only 20 yuan!). Also, the driver may simply stop and start it before their destination. Pay only later!
Take bus 919 – it’s a cheap local bus, but really great and comfortable. Or take the tourist bus n. 1 in Front Gate, No. 2 at the Beijing Railway Station, the West Gate of the Beijing History Museum, No. 3 in East Bridge, No. 4 at Xizhi Gate or Beijing Zoo, No. 5 from the west Taxi rank at Front Gate, No.8 from AnDingmen or Qianmen station. As it is easily accessible in a short time, Badaling can be said to be an attraction or a sight in Beijing.
Information
The Great Wall of China can be visited in many places over several thousand kilometers. Its condition varies from excellent to ruined and access from simple to quite difficult.
The Great Wall is a maximum of 9.1 m (30 ft) wide and is roughly the same color as the ground around it. Still, the apparent width of the Great Wall from the moon is the same as that of a human hair seen from 2 miles away. Not surprisingly, no lunar astronaut ever claimed to have seen the Great Wall from the moon.
See all our photos of the Great Wall
We post all our photos of the Great Wall in Badaling [http://www.findoutwheretogo.com/search.php?cat_id=45&search_keywords=badaling%20AND%20great_wall]. We hope they help you on your trip to Beijing. Travel to Beijing, it is an amazing city!
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