Trekking from Jinshanling Great Wall to Simatai Great Wall

The guide and the driver will pick you up at the designated place. Hiking is an exhausting and physically demanding activity, so we recommend you bring food and water to keep your energy. It is also necessary to wear loose and comfortable clothes and a pair of hiking boots that can protect your ankles.

In the morning, we will first drive northeastward for about 2 hours to Jinshanling Great Wall, about 160 kilometers away from downtown Beijing. Being one of the best-preserved sections of the Great Wall, it was first built in 1368 and later extended in 1567. This section was built on the Greater and Lesser Jinshan Ranges, so it got its name Jinshanling (Jinshan refers to Golden Mountain, and Ling refers to the range in Chinese). Because of the low terrain here, it is easy to attack and difficult to defend. This is why Jinshanling Great Wall possesses such a strong military defense system, with thick walls, barricades, battlements, forts, watchtowers, shooting holes, etc. The most special features of the Jinshanling Great Wall are the 31 watchtowers, each of which, 5 to 8 meters high, is about 50 to 100 meters away from the next. These watchtowers vary in form, and it can be said that every watchtower has its own style. The piers of them are shaped in square, flat or round, and the roofs are shaped in the canopy, vault, rectangle, octagon, etc. In addition, if you love photography, please remember to bring your camera because this place is known as the “Photographer’s Paradise”. It is available to visit here all year round, and you can savor the different beauty of this section in different seasons. In the spring, the apricot flower will blossom, and this place will be full of rich flower fragrance. In the summer, the plants here will show their most vigorous condition, and the Great Wall will be decorated in green. In the autumn, this place is visited by most people who come here to enjoy the breathtaking landscape when the mountains are covered by trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves. In the winter, Jinshanling Great Wall will wear snow-white clothes.

Then, you will continue the hike at Simatai Great Wall, which connects Jinshanling Great Wall in the west. This section has a total length of 5.7 kilometers and consists of east and west parts which are divided by a hot spring named Yuanyang Spring (Yuanyang refers to Mandarin Ducks). Simatai Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and is famous for its five characteristics, namely precipitous, dense, unique, delicate, and complete. Simatai Great Wall is built on the precipitous mountains, and the east part of it is very steep, such as the 100-meter long Heavenly Ladder that leads to Watchtower 15 (the Fairy Watchtower) with an 80-degree slope. The distances between watchtowers are very close, with the nearest two only tens of meters apart and the furthest two 300 meters apart. According to the construction rule, the distance should remain 500 meters, so Simatai Great Wall is an exception. In addition, its architectural structure is complete, having all the elements needed, such as watchtowers, beacon towers, forts, and shooting holes. The beacon towers here have diverse styles. There are two-story or three-story towers in square, oval, or hexagonal shape. The number of arrow holes on each beacon tower is also different, such as two, three, four, and twenty-four.

After viewing the two sections of the Great Wall, our 1-day Great Wall tour comes to an end. We sincerely hope that you are satisfied with this itinerary!

Jinshanling Great Wall

Simatai Great Wall

Author: Zhang Yibo