Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
trips that we recommend. See our Sleeping chapter for details. The following reputable
companies run trips to the Wall that we like:
» Bespoke Běijīng ( www.bespokebeijing.com )
» Dandelion Hiking ( www.chinahiking.cn )
» SnapAdventures ( www.snapadventures.com )
» Bike Běijīng ( CLICK HERE ) For cycling trips.
» Běijīng Sideways ( www.beijingsideways.com ) For trips in a motorbike sidecar.
Mùtiányù
Like Bādálǐng, Mùtiányù is a recently renovated stretch of Wall that sees a lot of tourists
and is fairly easy to reach from Běijīng. It's also well set up for families, with a cable car,
a chairlift and a hugely popular toboggan ride. Far fewer tour groups come here than go to
Bādálǐng, so the crowds are much more manageable, and there is the opportunity to do
some good hiking.
Top Tip
If taking bus 916 to Huáiróu, ignore the tout who almost always gets on this bus at Nan-
hua Shichang bus stop and tries to lure foreign tourists onto an expensive minibus tour to
the Great Wall.
JUST HOW GREAT IS IT?
The Chinese call the Great Wall the '10,000 Lǐ Wall' (Wànlǐ Chángchéng). With one 'Lǐ' equivalent to around
500m, this makes the Wall around 5000km long. More modern calculations, though, put the figure at far longer
than that. A report by China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage in April 2009 estimated the noncon-
tinuous length of the Ming-dynasty wall at 8851km. But the Ming dynasty was just one (albeit the most signi-
ficant) of 13 dynasties to have contributed to the Wall over the course of history. A more recent, more thorough
survey has calculated the total length of all fragments of the Great Wall that have ever stood, including sections
that run parallel with others, and sections that have weathered away to nothing, to be 21,119km.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search