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.
This hike is not currently scheduled
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 another story entirely.
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.
But 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 to finish at what was a heavily fortified pass in the hills.
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.
Because of the COVID-19 situation we have some extra terms and conditions for participation.
In particular:
- DO NOT participate if you are sick or showing symptoms of fever and/or have an elevated temperature, or have been in close contact with someone who was.
- DO NOT participate if you have not completed any required quarantine after your return to Beijing.
- You MUST agree to the mitigation and prevention measures outlined here and that Beijing Hikers will not be held responsible if any participants become sick.
Please read in full here: Operating hikes under COVID-19 precautions
