Jinshanling Great Wall to Gubeikou Great Wall
Hike the main parts 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.
This hike is not currently scheduled
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 on the park shuttle buses to get on to the main gate of the Great Wall at Jinshanling, and then follow the ‘horse trail’ up to the Great Wall.
Starting this way Jinshanling makes the hike easier, with a more gradual climb up to the wall. We’ll still have some steep sections to do, though!
We’ll get on to the Great Wall at the Houchuankou Pass which is on the eastern side of the Jinshanling Great Wall but below all the really steep stairs.
We’ll stay on the Jinshanling Great Wall all the way over to Taochunkou Tower, on the west side of the Jinshanling park area. We’ll have excellent views of all the Great Wall as we go, and if it’s a clear day, we’ll easily see all the way to Gubeikou.
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.
