Jiankou Zhengbei Tower Great Wall
Hike up and explore the Great Wall around Zhengbei Tower, including the ‘Little Potala’ Tower and the steep ‘Ox-Horn’ section.
Booking info
Wednesday, September 16
¥460 / ¥415 for members
Payment in advance required for this hike. More about payments
This is a slightly easier route than the ‘extra’ version but you will need to take care on some steep and tricky ascents and descents. Rated a Level 4 because of the steep and tricky parts.
Bad weather plan—if the weather forecast looks unsafe (lightning/heavy rain/extreme heat) we’d need to change the plan for the hike. We’d let you know if there was going to be a change.
This hike shows the highlights of the southeast part of the Jiankou Great Wall, covering many of the best parts of the Jiankou to Mutianyu trail.
This is a slightly easier route that avoids the super steep parts in the ‘extra’ version of our Zhengbei Tower hike. You will need to take care on some steep and tricky ascents and descents, as well as a few narrow sections.
Why not the Jiankou to Mutianyu or Jiankou to Beigou Village hike?
The trail through to Mutianyu from the Jiankou side has been blocked at Mutianyu’s Tower 23, which means you can’t hike any of the Mutianyu Great Wall if you’re starting from Jiankou, unless you climb over tall walls, evade the security guards, and avoid the cameras.
We wrote a longer post about Why we’re not doing the Jiankou to Mutianyu Great Wall hike anymore, which includes more details about the blocked sections, with photos to illustrate and our recommendations for other great Great Wall hikes.
The hike
The hike begins from a small village in the Jiankou area, and we’ll get started on an easy trail that leads up into forested hills.
At the top of the hills is Zhengbei Tower, one of the highest towers on the Jiankou Great Wall.
On our way up to Zhengbei Tower we’ll to take a detour to take a good look at some of the steepest and most photogenic Great Wall in the Jiankou area.
Our detour starts on a side track that cuts across the side of the hill, taking us to the bottom of The Cliffs, one of the most dangerous parts of the Jiankou Great Wall.
We won’t be climbing the cliffs! What we’ll do is an out-and-back hike the other way, following steep Great Wall up and down the ridgelines, heading for the ‘Little Potala’ Tower.
The wall between the cliffs and the ‘Little Potala’ Tower has had some basic repair work done to stop the Great Wall crumbling away. The workers did a good job, and the repairs make it safer to hike. (Previously it was extremely difficult to hike, as well as slightly unsafe.) It’s still a little bit tricky! The footing is solid, but uneven, and care is required on the steep parts.
From the ‘Little Potala’ Tower we’ll get excellent views of the steepest and most scenic parts of the Jiankou Great Wall.
From there we’ll hike back to The Cliffs, and then take a side trail around the cliffs and back to a safer section of Great Wall.
The next stop will be Zhengbei Tower. At around 1,000m of elevation, Zhengbei Tower is one of the tallest in the area, and offers unobstructed views of Great Wall all around.
The only taller tower in the area is the one at the top of the Ox-Horn section, and after a rest at Zhengbei Tower we’ll start the hike over and up to that one!
The Ox-Horn is a steep section of wall that makes a tight curve up to a peak that’s 1,019m above sea level. We’re going to first cut across the bottom of the curve on a forest path and then hike up the steepest side—much easier to go up than down, especially on the smoother flagstones near the top. We’ll take a break at the top and hike down the other side of the curve.
Once we get back down the Ox-Horn we’ll farewell the wall, and follow a clear track down through forest, arriving eventually at one of the other villages at Jiankou. From there, a short drive takes us back to the starting point of the hike, and we’ll visit our local guide’s guesthouse for snacks and drinks and dumplings before heading back to the city.
