Great Wall of China 5.9.25 and 5.15.25 (Charlotte and Sam)

We took two trips to the Great Wall of China during our time in Beijing. We visited the Mutianyu section on May 9, 2025 and enjoyed it so much that we decided to explore farther away from the city center to the Simatai section of the wall on May 15, 2025. Both times we visited, we saw some stray cats on the wall. They were very friendly and loved being pet by the kids.

The Great Wall of China has a long and interesting history. It was built by multiple emperors and helped China keep warring invaders out. Guards used a clever system of watch tower lights to communicate between long distances. We loved exploring the towers and looking out of the windows to the surrounding green hills and snaking wall in the distance.

    The day we visited Mutianyu, the wall was very windy and also very rainy. This weather, combined with a temperature of 50 degrees F was very different than what we had most recently experienced in tropical Hong Kong and Taiwan. Luckily we all had jackets and sweatshirts to stay warm, so morale stayed high and we were able to cover a lot of ground on our hike. Due to the rain, we decided to ride the the gondola up to the wall, hike, then ride down. The wind made our gondola ride a little freaky, but we survived.

The day we visited Simatai, the weather was perfect. Since Dad had to work, Mom decided to purchase a ticket on a tour bus that would bring us directly to and from Gubei water town and the adjacent Simatai wall trail. Gubei water town was built in 2022 and is a replica of an ancient water town called Wuzhen. Although not authentic, it fooled us! The detailed wood carvings, stone work and beautiful architectural craftsmanship were very impressive.

After a short stroll through town, we headed up to the wall and walked the length from tip to tip in about 2 hours. The Simatai wall is quite long and nicely restored. It is supposed to connect to an even longer more unrestored section of the wall called Jinshanlin, but unfortunately the connection was closed and under construction. 

 

We hiked down to Gubei just in time to watch a Chinese martial arts demonstration and lion dance. Then we had a nice dinner along the canal and headed back to our bus.  A long but eventful day!