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After our good start to the week with the fine weather and photo opportunities presented to us at the Forbidden City, we decided to head out to the Great Wall. I had been to the Wall before, at a section called Ju Yong Guan. Ju Yong Guan is a pretty popular tourist spot, and when we were there it was stacked to the gills with tour groups. Ju Yong Guan is also pretty steep, and the crowds thinned out a lot when we made it to the top, a good 300m+ up, but I was keen to visit somewhere a little more isolated and rugged this time round.

We decided to check out Jin Shan Ling, which is quite a long way out of Bejing (Ju Yong Guan and its nearby cousin Badaling are both around 60km from the city - Jin Shan Ling is nearly 200km away). I was keen on this spot for a few reasons:

- being a long way away from Bejing, it’s the least visited by tourists and tour groups.

- it’s almost totally unrestored.

- the brave can walk from Jin Shan Ling, along the Wall, to Si Ma Tai.

Si Ma Tai, as with Jin Shan Ling, is rugged, unrestored, and largely unvisited by tour groups. The vistas along the walk were supposed to be spectacular, and I was looking forward to checking it out.

So on Sunday night we booked a private car through the hotel to take us out there on Tuesday morning. The driver would take us to Jin Shan Ling, drop us off, drive to Si Ma Tai, pick us up, and take us back to the hotel. It cost us around RMB950, or just over NZ$200. This is what the trip looks like (again, a bit of a mess due to the iphone, but a good indication):

The last time I was in Beijing I was involved in a car accident. Not a major one; another driver went through a red light into the side of us, not at very high speed but enough to throw us around a fair bit. I’m still not quite sure how the drive out to the Wall this time round didn’t end up in death or at least horrible disfigurement; our driver seemed hell-bent on getting us there in record time, and no other car, bus, truck, cyclist, or pedestrian was going to get in the way. On the highway this wasn’t a major problem, aside from nearly rear-ending another driver the roads once out of Beijing were very clear. However once we turned off the main road the trip started to resemble a slightly terrifying game of chicken where at least 20% of the time was spent on the wrong side of the road, and where indicating gave way to leaning on the car horn for extended periods. Suffice to say most of the way out was spent holding onto the door handle for dear life.Still, we made it in one piece, paid the $20-odd entry fee to get through the gates, and climbed up the first set of stairs to the Wall itself.

And this is the view that greeted us when we reached the top.

As before, you can just browse these photos from start to finish, or there is some commentary inline below.

Some of the towers along the route are in pretty good condition and have been partially restored. The interior is often built as a lattice of 3×3 corridors.

There are a few locals who make a living by selling “souvenirs” to tourists, even in these parts where tourist numbers are quite low. This woman followed us for a good kilometer or so before, helping Fiona with some of the particularly steep bits before offering us t-shirts and postcards. Commitment.

The last time I was on the Wall it was the middle of summer, 40+ degrees, humidity in the 90s, and unbearable. The hillsides were thick with greenery. This time round the temparature was much lower and more pleasant, and while most of the plant life was going brown or losing leaves, there was still plenty of gold and yellow color around.

Quite a view to wake up to in the morning…

This guy was standing on a cliff-face just off one side of the Wall.

And some of the towers are in ruins. This one was actually in comparatively quite good shape.

It’s steeper than it looks.

Looking back the way we’ve come. Several parts of the wall have these buttresses.

Despite the smog and cloud, the views were still spectacular. This shot encompasses 13 of the 30 towers between Jin Shin Lang and Simatai - 12 plus the one I’m standing on. The third tower from the left on the horizon is the halfway mark.

This was one of the steeper sections, and coincidentally the section where our new local friend decided to turn around!

This site was becoming depressingly familiar.

Health and safety is not a Chinese strong point. These towers did have the occasional sign warning of the risk of falling bricks or weak walls, but no work has been done to secure any of it. I like it; knocking sections like this down or covering it in cement would ruin the atmosphere

The highest point was close to 500m above sea level. Beijing is as flat as a pancake and its highest point is less than 60m, so quite a difference.

The interior of some of the towers has been left to simply fall apart. Paths were cleared through the rubble.

The sky started to clear a bit as we got closer to Si Ma Tai. The smog still sat there on the horizon; but blue was starting to show through higher in the sky.

The view down into Si Ma Tai. There were very few other people around by this stage.

Some sections and towers were so badly ruined that paths had been built (well, trodden at least) alongside the Wall detouring the worst parts.

The rope bridge crossing the river at Si Ma Tai. It took a lot of effort to get to the top of the last section…

The river is actually the reservoir at the top of a dam.

After crossing the bridge you can climb down the wall to the river. Its pretty shallow, the water is incredibly clear and looks amazingly inviting after 5 hours of climbing. Fiona was pretty much done though so we didn’t head down - after cooling down it’d have been a real struggle getting back up again.

After finally making it up the last set of steps the view of Si Ma Tai. From here its a fairly gentle slope down to the carpark where our driver met us.

We spotted this guy on the ground on the path back to the carpark. There was a fair bit of wildlife on the Wall itself; plenty of insects, squirrels, and small lizards darting around the place.