Hi there. In this travel post series I cover our group's trip to Beijing's Great Wall. This was in Summer 2024. The weather was hot and the place was busy.
It may take a bit more time to get through more of the China travels. I think I have 20 to 30 more posts in terms of content material to go through.
Topics
Getting To Beijing Great Wall
Arriving There
Long Lineups, Crowding and Hot Weather
Other Notes & Pictures
Getting To Beijing Great Wall
One of the people in our travel group highly recommended that we head to the Great Wall early in the morning. It was to avoid big crowds in the afternoon.
Beijing's Great Wall is located outside of the city. There are different parts of the Great Wall. We went with the popular part of the Great Wall which is Badaling. Looking back I think we should have went to Mutianyu as it was closer and it less popular and busy.
For a group of five we went with a private taxi van. I think the price of the van was 100 CAD one way. Around Two hundred CAD after currency conversion for both ways. The taxi driver was okay with waiting at the Great Wall until we came back.
Arriving There
I think the taxi trip took around 1 hour one way. We got dropped off at the parking lot with the pickup and dropoff areas. Then we had to take a free bus in order to get to the Great Wall site. This bus lineup was kind of crazy at around 8 AM. The lineup took 30 minutes I think. This was in summer 2024 in late August.
When you arrive at the Great Wall area there are a bunch of stores, restaurants, statues and souvenir shops. There is a bit of walking uphill to get to the Great Wall tickets booths. Here are some pictures.
Long Lineups, Crowding and Hot Weather
Lining up to buy tickets was not too long. Senior citizens (age 65+) receive tickets at no cost. I had to pay maybe around 20 CAD (maybe less) for my ticket. After you get the tickets you go through security and enter the grounds.
The Great Wall area was crazy. It was hot and there were many people trying to walk up the Great Wall. For us it did not seem worth it to beat the crowd, walk up the wall in hot weather. We quickly took some pictures at the base and left the grounds in 30 minutes. Next time it would be better to visit the Great Wall outside of peak seasons.
Other Notes & Pictures
Later in the day the taxi driver showed us around the Forbidden City area & Tiananmen Square. Lineups are long there too. We quickly took some pictures as we pass by the square.
More to come in this travel blog series.
Thank you for reading.