“Definitely a "must visit" Wall with a good guide!”
We went to Badaling's Great Wall
section this month in April and after reviewing a few organized-trips offers we
decided to engage this network which was probably the best decision ever. All the offered trips not only start fairly late- meaning getting stuck in the
long line of tourist buses queuing to enter the town and being sandwiched
between millions of other tourists at the wall itself, but they usually also
involve obligatory visits to some "befriended" tea houses, jade
manufacturing points etc, leaving you very little time at the wall. Instead we took up a tour from this network called World
Heritage Network that provided us a Great Wall tour
without any shopping trips so that we have more time exploring the Wall. They
have a very informative website: www.whngreatwall.blogspot.com
with
pictures and maps of all other Great Wall trekking trails which we found it very
useful when planning our trip by ourselves in China. If you are looking for a friendly, efficient and trust worthy guide like we did, you can email them here:
worldheritage101@yahoo.com
With our guide’s private transport, we manage to get there early. That let us have a stroll through the northern part of the Badaling section in fairly (in Chinese terms) deserted conditions. At 9 o'clock the place is already packed with people and moving forward one meter may literally take you 5 minutes. Our tour group had priority access, to avoid the lengthy queue. Spring is a good time to visit as the weather is not very hot. I made an effort to walk a long distance on the wall, but needed to drink a lot of water. Walking on the great wall is a major highlight of our visit to China. This part of the great wall is supposed to be better than the parts that are nearer from Beijing, according to our tour guide. No wonder it is definitely a place you MUST visit when you travel Beijing, China. So, I suggest that you engage a tour operator like this network that can provide you a tour without shopping stops so you will have more or sufficient time to walk those steps peacefully to capture the beautiful scenery, either at dawn or sunset. This is truly one of the 7 wonders of the world. It is really very amazing and stunning! How could Chinese build such great wall in the old times? We want to travel with a time tunnel to see the whole process!! Lastly, we like to thank our guide and the network for providing us a wonderful and unforgettable tour to the Great Wall. Well done guys!
With our guide’s private transport, we manage to get there early. That let us have a stroll through the northern part of the Badaling section in fairly (in Chinese terms) deserted conditions. At 9 o'clock the place is already packed with people and moving forward one meter may literally take you 5 minutes. Our tour group had priority access, to avoid the lengthy queue. Spring is a good time to visit as the weather is not very hot. I made an effort to walk a long distance on the wall, but needed to drink a lot of water. Walking on the great wall is a major highlight of our visit to China. This part of the great wall is supposed to be better than the parts that are nearer from Beijing, according to our tour guide. No wonder it is definitely a place you MUST visit when you travel Beijing, China. So, I suggest that you engage a tour operator like this network that can provide you a tour without shopping stops so you will have more or sufficient time to walk those steps peacefully to capture the beautiful scenery, either at dawn or sunset. This is truly one of the 7 wonders of the world. It is really very amazing and stunning! How could Chinese build such great wall in the old times? We want to travel with a time tunnel to see the whole process!! Lastly, we like to thank our guide and the network for providing us a wonderful and unforgettable tour to the Great Wall. Well done guys!
“Great stunning views on a
blue sky day at Mutianyu Great Wall”
The Great Wall is truly great and worth a visit. You just
need to decide which part suits you best. Badaling
is good only if you are in a short trip to Beijing and are pushed for time, it
is fully restored and often quite busy. Mutianyu
is the best for tourists who want to experience the wall in a less busy and
more authentic way but who are maybe older, less fit or have young children.
The part you are allowed on is fully restored. It is an easy walk and the views
are great, choose a blue sky day. For
either of these parts, it best you engage a tour guide if you can’t speak
Chinese as it solves all communication problem and eradicate wastage of time of
asking the locals the spots in the walls you like to visit or asking where the
cable car station is and so forth. We engaged a network called World Heritage Network and
they provide english speaking guide that speaks perfect english and made our
tour so wonderful and forgettable that we insist to use the same guide again
our next trip to China in Beijing. The
plus point about engaging this network is
that they have a very informative website about all the various trekking trails
at various Great Walls in China. I learned about Mutianyu Great Wall from it
and was so glad that we choosed the right wall to visit this time. You can
check it out here: www.whngreatwall.blogspot.com
As for
the best great wall tour, Simatai is
good part to go if you have teenagers. You cable car up bike part of the way on
a part of the wall that is not fully restored and then zip line over a lake to
get down. Very fun! Not hard work and great views. The journey is longer than
the other more popular parts of the wall but there are less tourists and thanks
to our guide’s guidance and advice of where to go, it can be done in a day. My
favourite part of the wall is the walk from Jinshanling to Simatai West. If you
Google it you will find that this network can take you on a one day hike. You
need good fitness as some parts of the wall are unrestored and you will have to
clamber. The network company (World Heritage Network) I went with camped overnight
in one of the watch towers on an unrestored part of the wall. The views were
second to none and it was amazing to watch the sunset. If you are looking for this kind of
trek in Great Wall, try emailing them: worldheritage101@yahoo.com as they are the best in Beijing to provide Great Wall trekking
tours according to the locals there and indeed they are.
...commented by Damien Tee, Malaysia
"IMPERIAL PALACE IS TOTALLY AMAZING!!!"
This is our second time in Beijing
and the Forbidden City is still a must! This time visitors must go through a
security check at the South Gate at Tienamen Square. Depending on the
number of visitors, this can take over an hour. Hiring a guide can bypass the
line and that’s why I engaged a guide from World Heritage Network and it was smooth flowing all the way after that. If you
are looking for a guide that speaks english well and save you all the trouble
of ques including communication problem with the chinese, email: worldheritage101@yahoo.com or you can check out their very informative website: www.whngreatwall.blogspot.com
With the help of our guide, I did rent the GPS activated tour audio tour at 40 yuan, but there is an app called Your Forbidden City which I did install on my iPhone, but I did not get to use it this time. It seems to have similar information on the City and a few extras that may be of interest. Two things impressed me: the size, about 3/4 km by about 1 km, and it's location in the center of Beijing. The courtyards are huge, making the various buildings all the more imposing. Every building seems to have had a specific purpose, and as I progressed through the city, I got the feeling that the Emperor and the royal household were prisoners of the traditions and ceremonies that occupied their lives. At the northern part of the city, there are the gardens which represented the kingdom of China - something I suspect the royals never saw. Overall it was a great tour with our friendly and patient guide and I am totally surprised how knowledgeable our guide was in terms of the history of the Imperial Palace. Amazing!
...commented by Cathy A. Smith, New York, USAWith the help of our guide, I did rent the GPS activated tour audio tour at 40 yuan, but there is an app called Your Forbidden City which I did install on my iPhone, but I did not get to use it this time. It seems to have similar information on the City and a few extras that may be of interest. Two things impressed me: the size, about 3/4 km by about 1 km, and it's location in the center of Beijing. The courtyards are huge, making the various buildings all the more imposing. Every building seems to have had a specific purpose, and as I progressed through the city, I got the feeling that the Emperor and the royal household were prisoners of the traditions and ceremonies that occupied their lives. At the northern part of the city, there are the gardens which represented the kingdom of China - something I suspect the royals never saw. Overall it was a great tour with our friendly and patient guide and I am totally surprised how knowledgeable our guide was in terms of the history of the Imperial Palace. Amazing!
