Beijing

Shanhaiguan and Old Dragon's Head - the start of the Great Wall

2hw — Sun, 22 Dec 2019 14:04:18 +0000

2hw Sun, 12/22/2019 - 16:04

The Great Wall of China is thousands of kilometers in length - many different styles, going through various landscapes, some sections restored and drawing hordes of tourists, while others crumbling out of sight. Of particular interested to us was the Old Dragon's Head - the point where the wall meets the sea, the start of this engineering marvel. It is located in the city of Shanghaiguan - just a 3 hours train ride from Beijing and is easily done in one long day tour.

Even though it is a popular attraction for the locals, there is not much information online in English on how to get to Shanghaiguan and any other attractions in the area. It was a challenge to piece together an itinerary with the limited sources. We mostly relied on odd comments here and there and a single article - https://jonworth.eu/the-great-wall-of-china-at-shanhaiguan/, which was 5 years old at the time.

The places we visited on our day trip were:

Old Dragon's Head ( Laolongtou Great Wall ) | Google Maps link
Jiumenkou Great Wall | Google Maps link
First Pass Under Heaven | Google Maps link

How to get there

To be able to do it all in one day we had to take a train from Beijing to Shanhaiguan. It takes two and a half to three hours and getting on an early train, then leaving in the evening means having a whole day to explore Shanhaiguan.

It is important to buy tickets several days in advance as they sell out quickly. Tickets can be bought online or at any train station in Beijing - more about how to do it in our article here - How to buy train tickets in China (and step-by-step at Beijing Railway station).

The earliest fast train from Beijing was D30, departing Beijing train station at 6:39 am and it got us to Shanghaiguan at around 9:30 am. For the return trip we got the 19:30 fast train and managed to get back to our hotel around 10:30 - 11 pm. It was a long day, but we managed to squeeze everything that we wanted to do in it.

Our day

At the train station at Shanhaiguan we had to make the decision how to go around the attractions:

As we exited the station, just after we crossed the exit there were a couple of touts (probably more on weekend, we visited on a weekday) who were trying to sell transport to the main attractions. As it is usual in China, their level of English was mostly nonexistent, they were holding pictures of the places and writing their price on their phones. We decided do give them a pass as in most places using the middle man is the most expensive option. However, it might be a relatively easy way to organize a tour as they have a set route. If you decide to go with one of them - do not forget to haggle for the price.
Passing the exit of the station, in the big square in front of it, there were parked cars waiting to take passengers around - they were not official taxis and none of the drivers spoke any English, but instead of using a tout one can negotiate a route and a price with them directly.
Across the square official taxis were lined on the stand along the main street - using a meter is always the cheapest option, but again one has to explain where to go to the driver. If you have to do that - best is whether to find the address or the attraction name written in Chinese (Google maps or Wikipedia can be useful for this) or show a picture of it.
We decided to go with Didi (a car sharing app) to get to the farthest place and back first - Jiumenkou Great Wall, then use a bus for the attractions within the city.

Didi is the Uber/Grab alternative in China. The upside of Didi is that it is easy to choose a destination as the interface is in English and then driver gets the exact information of where you want to go on his phone. Plus the driver is forced to use a meter because of the app and you get the honest price.

Didi is just one of 12 useful apps to have on your phone when travelling in China.

There was one downside of using it, however - getting back turned out to be harder than expected, as there were no taxis in Didi near the scenic area of Jiumenkou Great Wall and we had to haggle a bit for the return trip.

Jiumenkou Great Wall

It was 30-40 minutes winding drive to the entrance of the scenic area that cost us 39 yuans, the entrance fee for the Wall was 80 yuans and included the Wall, a zoo and a tunnel under the wall that was used to house the local guards.

An unusual feature of this part of the wall is a bridge over a river - one of the few bridges along the Great Wall, rivers were considered to be harder to attack over. The bridge itself is fully restored, along with short sections east and west of it. The whole length of the restored section can be walked in around one hour with some steep parts to the west, but beautiful views of the area from the top. Past the "new" wall, the original crumbling "wild" wall can be seen curving over the nearby hill tops.

The zoo inside the scenic area was nothing more than a few ponds with ducks, not really an attraction except maybe for little children. The sleepy animals seemed undisturbed by the few visitors passing by their cages to get to the more interesting guard tunnel.

The guard tunnel is a 2 m high and around 1 km long tunnel dug through the mountain under the wall. It was used as garrison for the soldiers guarding the wall. Damp and cold it now features exhibits of weapons and torture devices, quite a few rooms and niches used for living quarters, temples and shrines, kitchens, prison cells, toilets. Story boards and figures in traditional clothing in some of the rooms tell historical tales about the building of the wall and the guards living there, unfortunately the English translations of those are impossible to make sense of, Google translate or more probably some Chinese equivalent had not done a good job.

We spent about 2 hours at Jiumenkou Great Wall. When it was time to go back to Shanhaiguan it turned out that there were no taxis nearby in Didi. We were forced to haggle for a ride back with the taxis waiting near the entrance and as there wasn't any other way to go back we had to settle to pay 100 yuans to get to the Old Dragon's Head. Not too expensive, but unpleasant compared to the metered taxi that brought us there.

Old Dragon's Head

The shiny big ticket office in front of the scenic area even had someone who spoke a little English to help us buy the tickets - Old Dragon's Head only was 50 CNY ticket, with several other options available that include entrance to other sites close by.

The site was crowded, not really something unexpected in China. It has a small park and a training camp, which is either restored or completely new, but would be interesting for children mostly. The part of the wall going into the sea was really impressive.

We spend around 1 hour at Old Dragon's Head and after that we headed to the First Pass Under Heaven. Bus 25 that passes near the scenic area frequently got us there for only 2 yuans per person.

First Pass Under Heaven

We got off the bus and walked about 10 minutes to get to the First Pass Under Heaven. Along the way we were approached by someone who claimed that the First Pass Under Heaven was closed, his English was minimal but he had a photo showing a gate with a barrier in front of it to better convey what he was saying and offered to take us to other places instead. Knowing this scam from other places we just politely said "No" and continued on our way. In situations like this, never believe that an attraction is closed, the scammer most probably wants to get you on an expensive "tour" of local shops.

The entrance for this scenic area was 40 yuans and we felt it was too much for what it had to offer, despite its historical importance. There is one gate with a tower, a short section of the wall, a lake and a small park.

We spent around 30 minutes there.

Drum and Bell tower and "Old" town

Exiting the First Pass Under Heaven we were in Shanhaiguan Ancient city - at least, this is what Google maps said. There was a 5 minutes walk to the Drum and Bell tower and another 5-10 minutes tothe west gate of the city.

The "old" town is at most restored, but more probably, a newly built attraction. It has the less than genuine feel of other such Chinese restored places - a lot of cookie-cutter souvenirs and local snacks stores, touristy, but lacking real atmosphere.

Walking around the old town it seemed that we were the biggest attraction with many of the local tourists taking sneaky-not-so-sneaky pictures of us or with us.

It was a 15-20 minutes walk to the train station from there, along the way we found a busy little restaurant and had an early dinner and some rest.

Caught the train at 19:30 - we could have done it for the one at 18:30 even, there wasn't much to do after sunset. Arrived in our apartment back in Beijing late, after a long day full of new experiences.

Date Visited

September 2019

Destinations

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How to spend your day at Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭)

2hw — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 08:03:18 +0000

2hw Tue, 11/05/2019 - 10:03

Visiting the Great Wall is probably at the top of most tourists "to-do" list when going to China. This astonishing historical monument stretches over 21000 kilometres and has many sections restored and accessible for tourists. Choosing which part to visit is not easy, each has its unique pros and cons - some are closer to big cities, others are popular because of the great photo opportunities. We made our choice after a lot of research and would like to recommend and share this experience with you.

About 130 km northeast from Beijing in the Jinshan mountains is the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China. That's a bit further than the most popular sections of the wall, which means you have to invest more time for travelling, but it is totally worth it.

I will list the great things about going to Jinshanling over other parts of the wall, but first, watch our video to get an idea of what to expect

https://youtu.be/JIRrnKFTSRY

Ok, so why go there?

Tranquillity: Because of the distance to Beijing and limited transport options not many people visit Jinshanling - which is great! During our hike, we walked alone for the most part and even when we encountered other hikers they were small groups, not whole busloads. Believe me, the Great Wall is a place you want to enjoy in peace.
Great variety: It is a relatively short stretch of the wall but it is also packed with watchtowers, beacon towers and passes all this built with different combinations of materials (stone, brick, wood) and in various architectural styles. There are one-, two- and three-storey towers too, some rare decorations and even bricks inscribed by the soldiers who placed them.
More variety: I know this should be part of the previous point, but I decided to list it separately as it is a truly unique feature. Most of the Jinshanling section is well restored, but there are some original parts left and the best feature - easily accessible "wild" section of the wall that hasn't been touched for centuries lies in the east corner.
Snap, snap, snap: Jinshanling has been called "Photographer's heaven" and this title is well deserved. As explained above the wall itself offers a great choice of things you will want to take a picture of, this combined with the beautiful flowing mountains around it will keep your camera busy for hours.

Some quite steep stairs

How to get to Jinshanling?

If you have a car it is an easy 2-hour drive from Beijing. If not - don't worry - there is a daily bus that offers the best value for money transport between downtown Beijing - read Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭) - How to get there the easy way.

Our hike - a great day covering the best spots

The park is big and offers many routes to suit different levels of fitness and enthusiasm - first I will tell you about our hike and in the next section I have summarized several other ideas. Let's start with a simplified map of the place to put things into perspective.

As we had the whole day and were really excited to cover as much as possible of the wall we headed to Brick Crenel first. This is the westmost entry point from Mid Gate and we did an extended version of the suggested 4 hours "The 3 Must-sees of the Great Wall" route, including sections west of Brick Crenel and east of East Five-Window Tower. I have also included the times when we reached some points for reference, I would rate our fitness level slightly above average and we had many breaks for taking photos, videos and enjoying the views.

We got our tickets at 10:35, prices were 65 CNY per person for the entrance plus 10 CNY for the shuttle bus, note that those are separate tickets, sold at separate windows, you have to ask for both.

At 10:40 the shuttle bus took us for a short 5-minute drive further into the park. This ride saves you only about 20 minutes walking as it gets less than halfway to the wall, but we decided to pay the small fee and have more time for the main attraction. Walking there is easy as the road is paved and empty, but also a bit boring - no views at all, so the 10 yuan were well spent. The stop is before another ticket check/entrance, we kept going south towards the wall. There is a cable car and various paths that can take you to different points on the wall - see the map.

To my surprise during the short walk to the wall, we couldn't see it almost until the end - the greenery hides the Great Wall from view. At 11:10 we reached Brick Crenel and the real adventure began. First, we took a small detour west towards Taochunkou, but didn't reach it - we were still worried about time and decided to go back and continue east. Great views of the West Beacon Tower here, but this section of the wall is really steep and hiking there takes a lot of effort.

Less than an hour later (12:00) we were at Xiaojinshan Tower, this is an entry point for people using the cable car. Here we did some calculations and realized we have plenty of time to do the hike we planned, so we relaxed and slowed down our pace a bit.

Decorations at the Flower Tower

Another hour passed until we reached the Flower Tower at 13:00 - one of the unique features of the wall there - not many towers had decorative elements back in the day, even less were adorned with flowers and animals carved into the door frames. Just before the Flower Tower is a very steep section with smooth stones, a real challenge for the unprepared.

The "wild" wall

At 13:45 we reached the exit point used by most tourists - the East Five Window Tower. There was a large Spanish speaking group of students cheering themselves for reaching the end, but for me, this is where the best part began. East of the East Five Window Tower lays a large unrestored section of the wall. We went three towers further this way, the path there goes on the wall, then trough the shrubs around the towers, then climbs back on the wall, then on the other side and so on. For the whole hour we spent there not a single soul came this way - we had the original part of the wall all to ourselves.

Brick with inscription

It was fun "hunting" for the inscriptions - this section is called Inscription Wall because some of the bricks have texts edged into them by the builders a long time ago. After the last tower, we reached the path disappears, leaving the old wall crumbling alone, almost impossible for tourists to reach. We had a quick lunch there at the last reachable tower admiring the perfect view of the untouched for centuries wall amidst lush greenery - a great end to our hike of the Great Wall.

Nobody goes further

Happy and satisfied we had reached the final goal we went back to East Five Window Tower and took the path to East Gate. It is one kilometre long and took us about 20-25 minutes, plenty of stairs and it is all downhill.

The bus was waiting at East Gate, also there is a nice restroom with water, paper towels, soap and free drinking water, much-appreciated refreshment after the hike and before the bus ride back to Beijing.

Hiking and walking routes at Jinshanling

The park is large and offers many ways to spend your time there. The first four in the list are the recommended itineraries I got from the official map (with our comments), the rest are our suggestions. Please plan your hikes according to your physical abilities and the time you have.

The Essential Great Wall (2 hours): Mid Gate -> Brick Crenel -> Shalingkou Tower -> Mid Gate: This should be a fairly easy walk covering the most popular section of the wall with plenty of good views.
Great Wall for Photographers (2.5 hours): Mid Gate -> Brick Crenel -> Xiaojinshan Tower -(cable car)-> Mid Gate: I kind of agree with this one, sure there are enough photo opportunities along this short walk, but I would recommend doing it in the opposite direction - using the cable car uphill to save more energy.
The 3 Must-sees of the Great Wall (4 hours): Mid Gate -> Brick Crenel -> East Five Window Tower -> East Gate: This is the one we used as a base, follow our route and go at least a little bit west after Brick Crenel, you have to double back, but there are some unique views. More importantly - if you have time and energy go east of East Five Window Tower - the "wild" section of the wall is worth every step.
Great Wall for Fitness Enthusiasts (4 hours): West Gate -> Taochunkou -> Brick Crenel -> Mid Gate: This will be a serious workout as both the path to Taochunkou and the section of the wall there are steep. This is not a very popular area as the bus doesn't go to the West Gate. Ideally, have a car with a driver to drop you off and pick you up.
End-To-End (7 hours): West Gate -> Taochunkou -> East Five Window Tower -> East Gate: If you are in great shape and want a full day serious hike that's the best Jinshanling has to offer. It will require some planning and definitely can't use the bus as the time is not enough, but if you hire a car with a driver and go for an early start they can pick you up at the end of the day from East Gate. Bring plenty of water and some food. If you lose your breath after climbing five flights of stairs this is not for you, but if you decide to go for it and can't finish the hike there are exit points along the route.
Minimal Effort (2 hours): Mid Gate -(cable car)-> Xiaojinshan Tower -> Shalingkou Tower -> Mid Gate: A short stroll along the wall after taking the cable car uphill is a good option for people who can't walk much but still want to see some great views.
Zero Effort (1.5 hours): Mid Gate -(cable car)-> Xiaojinshan Tower -> -(cable car)-> Mid Gate: Just going up the wall is still worth it in my opinion, whatever is preventing you from hiking the wall you can go up and down with the cable car and still have a fulfilling experience.
The Old, The New and The Wild (4 hours): Mid Gate -(cable car)-> Xiaojinshan Tower -> Inscription Wall -> East Five Window Tower -> East Gate: Save time by using the cable car and enjoy the new and restored sections of the wall, then when you get to East Five Window Tower continue east for three more towers into the "wild" area. Almost zero tourists around and the untouched wall make this a truly unique place.

What to bring for a hike of the Great Wall at Jinshanling

Weather-appropriate and comfortable clothes - keep in mind that the temperature may be significantly lower than in Beijing, also up on the wall there is no protection from wind and the sun.
Good hiking shoes - decent trainers as a minimum, hiking boots are a better choice, leave the flip flops and heels at home. I saw a man wearing leather loafers and he was struggling big time, the wall is steep at some places and he was literally crawling on all fours. Good grip and stability are essential for a safe and comfortable hike - even when dry some stones are slippery, others wobble.
Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, umbrella - depending on the weather, but better to be over-prepared than unprepared.
Water and food - restaurants can be found inside the park, but on the wall, options are very limited. Locals have set up small stands in some of the towers selling drinks and snacks along with souvenirs, but if you are not bringing enough be prepared to pay highly inflated prices. Can't blame them for this though - carrying stuff up the wall is not easy and when you get there you will agree with the high prices too.
Cameras, tripods and all your photographer's gear - this is one of the best spots for taking pictures on the Great Wall, make sure to capture some high-quality memories and don't end up with a dead battery.
Mobile phone and cash - be prepared for everything. This is not a tour bus and it will not wait for you - if you miss it you have to find another way to get back to Beijing.

Date Visited

September 2019

Destinations

Comments

Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭) - How to get there the easy way

2hw — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 23:52:00 +0000

2hw Tue, 11/05/2019 - 01:52

You have decided to hike the Great Wall at Jinshanling? Congratulations on your choice! Keep reading to learn how to get there the cheap and easy way.

Not sure yet? Read about our hike there and all the great things you can experience in our post here: How to spend your day at Jinshanling Great Wall or just watch this video:

https://youtu.be/JIRrnKFTSRY

There are not many options for transportation to Jinshanling and most of those are on the high end of the price range. Group tours are limited and expensive, hiring a car with a driver is even more expensive, Fortunately there is a bus that offers great value for money - convenient and cheap, it's our recommended way to get to the Great Wall at Jinshanling.

There is only one bus doing the route, it leaves Beijing in the morning and comes back late afternoon, allowing about five hours to explore the wall, which allows for a variety of ways to spend the day.

by GoogleMaps

The bus departs from a depot close to Dongzhimen Station, which is on subway lines 2 and 3 and the Capital Airport Express. Once at Dongzhimen find Exit E or B - depending on which line you used one may be easier to find. Exit E is closer to the destination, but both are on the same side of a street.

Dongzhimen Station, Exit E

When you exit the station walk this way

Exit and go east and after about 200 meters turn left at the traffic lights (without crossing) along Dongzhimen Outer Street (called "Byway" on Google Maps).

Turn left here without crossing

Walk about 400 meters more and after a turn you will see some buses parked on the street, past them is the entrance to the bus terminal, there is signage for the Jinshanling Great Wall express.

Entrance of Dongzhimen bus terminal

Go in, the alley goes behind the bus stop you need, ignore the booths (can't pay there). Wait for the bus - sign says departure at 8:00 (paper taped over the old 7:40). The bus didn't have any signs in English, but the Chinese characters (金山岭) were easily recognizable.

Path to the bus stop

The bus stop

Our bus departed on time (8:05) and made a stop at Wangjing West bus terminal (8:30), but we didn't take any passengers there despite the huge billboards advertising the route. A lady came on the bus to collect the money - 50 CNY per person one way.

Around 9:30 we had a 10 minute break at a service station with a convenience store and a toilet.

Arrived at Jinshanling Main Gate at 10:30. The driver didn't speak English, but a passenger translated for him the most important information - the bus departure was from East Gate at 15:40 and from Main Gate at 16:00.

It is a very short walk from the parking lot to the ticket office, about 5 minutes.

We did a 5 hike along the wall and greatly enjoyed it, there are other options - for shorter or longer visits - read all about it in our article How to spend your day at Jinshanling Great Wall.

After the adventure, the bus was right on schedule departing from East Gate at 15:40, collected more passengers from Main Gate and the only other stop was right after Jinshanling - a lady came on board to collect the 50 yuan fare. We arrived back at the Dongzhimen bus terminal at 18:05.

Jinshanling East Gate parking

Date Visited

September 2019

Beijing

Shanhaiguan and Old Dragon's Head - the start of the Great Wall

Shanhaiguan and Old Dragon's Head - the start of the Great Wall

How to get there

Our day

Jiumenkou Great Wall

Old Dragon's Head

First Pass Under Heaven

Drum and Bell tower and "Old" town

Destinations

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How to spend your day at Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭)

How to spend your day at Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭)

How to get to Jinshanling?

Our hike - a great day covering the best spots

Hiking and walking routes at Jinshanling

What to bring for a hike of the Great Wall at Jinshanling

Destinations

Comments

Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭) - How to get there the easy way

Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭) - How to get there the easy way

Destinations

Comments