Crowds.
Constant queuing.
Overpriced cafes.
Cable cars and even a toboggan ride.
Yet this is not a theme park.
This is the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China.
An estimated 5 million people visit this stretch of wall every single year, making it the 2nd
most popular section for tourists.
It’s busy, it’s noisy and it feels quite new.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
The Great Wall of China has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.
It is incredible up here.
But at over 21,000 kilometres long, it’s hard to know where to start.
Should you visit a restored or ruined section?
An easily accessible or a remote section?
Full on forest on top of the Great Wall of China.
We travelled out to three very different sections of the wall with three very different vibes.
All with their own unique strengths and obstacles.
In search of the best way to experience this wonder of the world.
My name is Ryan and this is Emma and welcome to a very special episode of the One Shot
Adventures China Series.
Good morning, welcome to Beijing.
We just left our very cool hostel in the city and we’re heading to Wanjing subway station
to get on a bus to see the Great Wall for the first time.
So very very exciting.
Today we’re heading to a section of the wall called Jinshanling.
Which is slightly further away than some of the more popular sections like Badaling.
It’s also only half restored, so we should get that nice blend of kind of ruined sections
of the wall and stuff that looks quite new.
Just starting to get our first glimpses of the wall now.
The bus drops you off at sort of a service station and then from there there’s supposed
to be a free shuttle bus but it wasn’t there when we arrived so we just got a taxi.
We paid 40 Yuan each which is way too much, but we’re a little bit short on time today,
so it had to do.
Although it has all of the same amenities as a busy section of the wall, Jinshanling
was pretty empty.
Being that slightly further away from the city can make a huge difference.
Cosy.
As we started climbing up in the cable car, I started to feel pretty excited.
This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was very young so to me this was like meeting
Mickey Mouse for the first time, but in wall form.
I’m having a weird outer body experience now.
We’re at the Great Wall.
This first part of the wall off the cable car is quite heavily restored, so it’s pretty
easy to walk on but when you compare it to pictures of Badaling or any of the parts of
the wall that are much nearer Beijing, there’s crowds and crowds of people.
You can barely get anywhere.
Then you come here and there’s only a handful.
So the further we walk on, the more wild it should become.
Jinshanling is also great for some longer hiking, you can trek along the wall to another
section called Simitai and it takes between 4 and 5 hours.
It just goes on and on and on and on.
After our compulsory photo shoot with Chinese tourists, we left Jinshanling feeling pretty
chuffed.
We found the shuttle bus this time.
But we couldn’t help but crave something even more authentic.
A bit more raw, a little more wild.
Good morning, it’s another day in Beijing and today we’re heading out to a very special
part of the wall.
We’re just heading to the train station now.
I’ve always had a bit of an Indiana Jones obsession, I love ruins and I love hidden
gems.
So we booked a night with the Chen family, who run a homestay from their farm 2 hours
outside of Beijing.
And most importantly, they have access to completely unrestored sections of the great
wall.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, this does not look like the start of a journey to a
hidden gem and check out what happens when the train arrives and there’s no reserved
seating.
That was insane.
This is Beijing’s S2 tourist train that leads directly to the most popular section
of the Great Wall, Badaling.
But thankfully we were not going there.
We were staying on one more stop to a quieter area called Yanqing.
From the train station we were picked up by a member of the family and very quickly arrived
at their home.
The village they live in is incredibly small and the farm is so peaceful, with probably
the best dog I have ever seen.
We arrived at the Chen family farm and they gave us a lovely lunch and now we’ve been
dropped at the trail head ready to climb up to the Great Wall.
We’re going to be hiking a section called the Hunchback Curve, it’s going to take
about 4 hours and its supposed to be a very beautiful spot.
This section of the wall is no joke, it’s pretty dangerous to climb and I’m not even
sure if its entirely legal to visit.
This is very different from the last steps we climbed up.
There’s barely a path at all.
Right, up we go.
So we just made it to the first watchtower and the views are already amazing.
There’s just sections of dense forest.
You’ll be on crumbling parts of wall and suddenly you’ll just be engulfed in forest.
Completely overgrown.
Spiderweb!
Get off!
I don’t think many people come here at all.
We were looking for wild, this is pretty wild.
You can see how the wall snakes right along the top of the mountain.
You okay?
Why are we going down to go up?
That’s my favourite kind of way.
Jesus.
I have mentioned this already on this trip by the way, neither of us are experienced hikers at all
So why we chose to do one of the most demanding hikes, I dont really know.
Emma has fallen over twice already.
Are you ok?... War wound.
I’m hoping these little things are markers to tell us that we’re going the right way,
not remains of the last people that came here.
Now this.
Just when we thought it was going to get easier, this is the steepest part yet.
This looks like a real staircase.
Steps!
I never thought I would be so happy to see steps.
From this, to this.
From what I understand, this is still part of the Badaling section of the wall, Its just
only the top here has been restored and everything around it has been left to ruin.
We’ve been walking for a couple of hours and we haven’t seen a single person.
I know we’ve been saying that a lot on this trip, I said it a lot on Jinshanling that
there’s nobody around.
But there’s really nobody around here.
The cloud is really setting in now, can’t even see what’s in front of us.
This is why they call it the Hunchback Curve, because of the way this part of the wall just
twists around the top of the mountain.
It almost doubles back on itself.
There’s no more words to describe this place, its just incredible.
It’s a very special moment this.
You can be like Michael Jackson here.
Wait wait wait, ready?
It goes down which is what we’re doing now.
To 2 towers.
We’ve been looking for 2 towers in the distance that will show us the way down and we’ve
finally seen them just up ahead.
The 2 towers!
Are you filming so you can get my death on camera?
Yeah for insurance purposes.
Hikers!
Yeah!
It would be nice to stay and watch some more of the sunset but, we’ve still got a 40
minute at least walk back to the farm.
So, we don’t really want to do that in the dark.
Reunion.
He’s so cute.
Which takes us back to where this film started.
This isnt even a busy day, from what I’ve read it can get a lot busier than this.
But its a very different vibe from the last 2 places that we’ve seen.
The restoration is really impressive, the wall looks amazing here, its just its got
that kind of Disneyland feel, where everything is so set up for tourists that it loses so
much of the character that made the other 2 parts of the wall so nice.
You know there’s 2 cable cars, a toboggan down, theres way more people than we’ve
had on the last couple of days.
It’s just different.
My advice would be to avoid Badaling and Mutianyu completely.
If you want that perfect balance of easy access, convenience and a complete lack of people.
Jinshanling is great.
It’s restored, it’s ruined, you can walk on it for an hour or hike it for several.
But if you want something more than just a visit, something more like an adventure.
Take the wild route and I promise it will be something you will never forget.
Now then, I suppose there’s only one way to finish off this film.
I never thought I would be saying this but I’m about to slide off the Great Wall of
China.
That was pretty fun.
Why is that at the Great Wall?