Great Wall at Simatai

Simatai section of the Great Wall is about 2-3 hours drive (120km) from Beijing, and you should plan at least 3 hours there. It is possible to go to Jinshangling (to the west) section of the Great Wall, and hike over to Simatai. Seems like pretty serious hiking, and could take 3-4 hours just to get to Simatai. Then if you were to hike the 12 watch towers of Simatai, it could take a few more hours (up and down). But the crowds are not here (yet) due to the distance from Beijing, and the scenery is amazing. The Simatai section is known to have the steepest grades, from a distance you can see the wall on this mountain ridge, and you can't help but be amazed. The wall here is mostly like what it has been for 500 years, not restored like at Badaling. Only very small sections were repaired so you could walk safely. From the parking area, go through the ticket booth (40RMB), and then you can take the cable car (if you want to save some time and energy) for additional ticket of 50RMB round trip. Or you can start hiking. 12 towers are accessible, the "stairs to heaven" past tower 13 and beyong to the highest point is closed to tourists.

I took an organised trip to Simatai from the SAGA Hostel in Beijing. We were driven out in a minibus for about an hour and a half - Simatai is about 12km/75 miles outside the city. When we got within sight of the Wall everyone fell silent - you truly cannot appreciate the immense scale of the Great Wall until you're at it, beside it or on it.

It costs around 40Y (£1 GBP at the time) to get into the area, and another 20Y for the cable car - so it's pretty good value! We paid our fee for the gondola - a couple of people were prepared to walk all the way up the rather major slope, but not I! The cable car took us half way up the hillside, took the funicular a bit further up and hiked to the wall itself.

I was absolutely gobsmacked. Not only by the beauty of my surroundings, but by the dogged persistence of a little Chinese woman who wanted to be my guide, sell me drinks and books and postcards and t-shirts. I was absolutely not interested in making use of her services, but she followed me a good bit of the way, picking up a friend who was selling ice cream on the way. I bought a bottle of water and an ice cream eventually and managed to give them the slip when they turned away!

Lying in the Gubeikou Town northeast of Miyun County about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Beijing, the Simatai Great Wall stretches about five kilometers (three miles) from the Wangjinglou Tower in the east and connects to the Jinshanling Great Wall in the west. It has 35 beacon towers. Constructed under the supervision of Qi Jiguang, a famous general in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it is the only part of the Great Walls that still has the original appearance of the Ming Dynasty.

The Simatai Great Wall is celebrated for its steepness, proportionate lack of tourists and it's intactness. The main tourist attractions include the Stairway to Heaven, the Fairy Tower, the Heaven Bridge and the Wangjinglou Tower.

There's also a zip wire back to the coach park for anyone impatient enough not to want to walk back down, which takes you over the lake. It looked great but I was happy enough walking down! Maybe if I'd been pushed for time I'd have slid! The walk itself is pretty gentle, and even on the main part of the wall you can climb as steep a section as you like and still not miss out seeing anything.

Highly Recommended - I've heard from people who went to Jinshanling that it was extremely crowded, so I'd got for Simatai everytime!

Its pretty Flupping Great alright!!

simatai is a good section to visit, nice view with people-free photos. We hiked on the top of it, it took 2 and half hours. we are so lucky with the weather, it helped us to view in distance.
It said that do not climb high in rainy days, otherwise, it would be very dangerous with lightening.

The great wall of china is the only structure that can be seen from the moon-

Hearing so much about this wonder of the world, i had to see it for myself. Being on a 14 days tour of China around Shanghai and Suzhou, i decided to drop by Beijing and the great wall of china for 4 days. The difference in temperature at the base of the wall and on the wall was incredible, dropping by around 2 degrees. (Note to all traveling between Nov. And December do remember to bring along an extra coat even if it seems like an additional baggage.) However braving the cold was certainly worth it. The scenery was spectacular being able to see the lines at the 5th point of the wall all the way stretching into the horizon. The wall seemed endless and the thought of how much effort, manpower and materials going into this project was just incomprehensible.It got me speechless.


The magnitude/scale of the great wall of china just took my breath away.It was definitely worth the 4 days detour. To all going to China, do remember to hop down to the great wall of china. Seeing it is definitely worth your time/money.

This is a must for anyone wanting to experience the 'real' wall. forget the wall nearest to beijing- it is cheap and tacky with stalls selling genuine t-shits for 10Yuan - mmmm comfy!...this part of the wall crosses 32 watch towers and you see some of the most beautiful scenery. And for those who dont like carrying your bags - women and men from the local village do the walk with you for a small fee and will carry your bags, help you up some of the crumbling stairways and generally keep you company. Most of them are local corn farmers and so they make very little money. My ladies name was Chin and she had 3 children. I was happy to carry my bag but it was nice to have a hand there for some of those steep bits. (be warned though, they do this walk about 2-3times a day every day so they are a DAM lot fitter than they look). This part of the wall has Mongolia on one side and China on the left. We finished on this part of the wall and it was defintely worth it. At the end there is a flying fox over the dam which costs i think about 30 Yuan (AUD$6?) if i remember and its a lot of fun - a boat at the bottom drops you back to the entrance but there is a nice little 2 star hotel at the end which i would recommend staying at - you have a real chinese BBQ for dinner and the atmosphere is better than the big hotels in Beijing. but it is quite modest - so dont go expecting much

I did this walk in July which is summer over there - we luckily had a week of freak Autumn weather (so temp were more low 20s rather than high 30s) and it pays off!!.. if you can get to China in Autumn it would be the best time to walk the wall (the first day we started it was high 30's and i almost fainted!)