Jinshanling Great Wall to Gubeikou
Hike all of the repaired Great Wall at Jinshanling, plus the top section of the Gubeikou Great Wall, with a mid-hike detour through the farmland around Hemp Village.
Booking info
Saturday, December 16
¥500 / ¥450 for members
Payment in advance required for this hike. More about payments
We start the hike in Hebei Province, and you’ll need to bring your passport/ID card in case we’re checked at a border control checkpoint.
This is the version of the hike that covers all of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, and just the top section of the Great Wall at Gubeikou.
The Jinshanling Great Wall is a mix of fully-restored and lightly-restored wall where you’ll see picturesque views of large towers and sweeping lines of wall along the ridgelines.
Hike plan
We’ll start off by hiking up paved trails and steps to get on to the eastern end of the Great Wall at Jinshanling.
Starting on the east side of Jinshanling makes the hike slightly easier—we’ll be hiking down the steepest sections instead of up. And because the east side is higher than the west, we’ll have excellent views of all the Great Wall we’ll be hiking later in the day. If it’s a clear day, we’ll easily see all the way to Gubeikou.
We’ll stay on the Jinshanling Great Wall all the way over to Taochunkou Tower, on the west side of the Jinshanling park area.
It would be great to continue on the Wall all the way to Gubeikou—it’s all connected—but part of the Great Wall here borders military land and that section of it is blocked off.
From Taochunkou Tower we’ll leave the wall, walking beside it before turning off to follow dirt tracks through farmland and up a valley to get around the military area.
After a slow climb up that valley we’ll be back up on the Great Wall at Gubeikou’s 24-Eyes Tower.
24-Eyes Tower is the tallest tower on the Panlongshan ‘Coiling Dragon Mountain’ part of the Gubeikou Great Wall, and one of the largest, too.
The name ’24-Eyes’ came from the number of windows—six on each of the tower’s four sides. The tower only has two sides now due to damage over the years, including explosions and gunfire during a 1930s battle between Chinese and Japanese armies.
We’ll take a break at 24-Eyes Tower before following the wall down to Haowang Tower, passing through several more towers, with views of a long line of Great Wall in front of us.
After reaching Haowang Tower we’ll finish the walk by following a paved park trail down to the carpark. We’ll warm up with some soup and snacks at a restaurant near the carpark.
COVID-19 and participation precautions
The brief version:
- Please 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/is.
- 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
