Badaling Ancient Great Wall | About halfway up to the first peak on the hike
About halfway up to the first peak on the hike.

Badaling Ancient Great Wall

Follow the western end of the repaired Great Wall at Badaling up and over a big mountain—a long climb up, and a steep descent from the top.

Level 4
Steep ascents and descents for much of the hike, not a lot of shade. 4 hours start to finish over approx. 8km (Can I do it?)

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Way back at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the ‘Dashing King’ and leader of a peasant rebellion, broke through the Great Wall at an obscure pass in the mountains just west of the Badaling Great Wall. He went on through the mountains with his army to Beijing, besieged it, and proclaimed himself Emperor of the new Shun Dynasty. You may not have heard of the Shun Dynasty, and fair enough – it didn’t last very long, with the Qing beating them out pretty swiftly. But that’s a different story.

The pass where the Peasant King broke through is still obscure, reached by doing a U-turn out of one of those long tunnels that go under the mountains and then driving up to the end of a narrow road.

It’s now known as the Badaling Ancient Great Wall, and it has all been repaired and fixed up.

Most visitors here just take a look at the lower two towers and head back, as the Great Wall here gets rather steep.

What we’ll do for this hike is keep going up, and up, and then over and down, then up and over another hill … all the way to Stone Valley Village.

From the first peak, a long line of Great Wall is seen stretching eastwards to the Badaling Great Wall.
From the first peak, a long line of Great Wall is seen stretching eastwards to the Badaling Great Wall. (Click for larger image)

The views are superb the whole way—to the north, a broad plain lies below mountains; to the south, more mountains and maybe a glimpse of Beijing city; to the east, the Badaling Great Wall runs through the hills to a high peak; and to the west, more Great Wall running along ridges.

The exercise is also superb! For almost all the hike you’re either climbing up or climbing down, and it gets quite steep. And once you get over the first mountain and down the other side, there’s a smaller hill to go up and over, and we’ll see some unrepaired Great Wall here before hiking down to the finish.

Near the end of the hike, on the unrepaired Great Wall above Shixia Village.
Near the end of the hike, on the unrepaired Great Wall above Shixia Village. (Click for larger image)

COVID-19 and participation precautions

The current precautions are minimal. Please read in full here: Operating hikes under COVID-19 precautions

Related content

Photos and trip reports: Badaling Ancient Great Wall

  1. Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2024/09/08

    Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2024/09/08

    A few hills to the west of the touristy Badaling Great Wall is the Badaling Ancient Great Wall, which sees fewer visitors, particularly up on the higher parts. See 26 photos from a misty hike along the Great Wall here.
  2. Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2021/12/04

    Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2021/12/04

    We were on the Great Wall for nearly all of this hike, first on a repaired section at the Badaling Ancient Great Wall, and then finishing on a rough section near Stone Valley Village—see 19 photos.
  3. Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2021/08/29

    Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2021/08/29

    The weather was terrific for this walk on the Great Wall to the west of the touristy wall at Badaling—see 12 shots of the wall and surrounding scenery.
  4. Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2020/11/14

    Badaling Ancient Great Wall, 2020/11/14

    Murky weather spoiled the views, but our legs still got a workout on the steep ascents and descents—see 19 photos from the hike up the wall and over to Stone Valley Village.

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