This hike is a shortened version of our Nine-Eyes Tower trail. We'll see a lot of the same scenery, but we'll skip the super-tough scramble up to the Nine-Eyes Tower.

Starting off at one of the smaller villages in the Jiankou area, we'll warm up with a slow climb up into the hills, following little paths that the villagers use to get to the fields where they grow their corn and chestnuts.

The trail takes us up into a forested area, and through pastures that were used to farm cows. The stonewall cattle pens are still in evidence, although hidden in the undergrowth. The long grass is a good sign that there haven't been any cows in here for quite a while!

Passing old stone walls and terraces, the trail starts to get steep again as the Great Wall comes into view on the ridgeline above.

At the top of the trail is Er Dao Bian Tower, the start of the Nine-Eyes tower loop. Er Dao Bian roughly translates as ‘Two Roads On Each Side,’ and at this point in the hike we’ll be at approximately 900m above sea level.

From here, we’ll follow the wall south towards the Chinese Knot section, passing around and over ten towers. The first four towers are not in the best condition, and the trail we take sometimes skirts around sections that are too steep or too broken to walk on, and it's in this part where we'll find the trickiest descent of the hike.

After a while we’ll be back on to solid footing, and we'll get excellent views of the Big West Wall: solid and uncommonly tall foundations made of huge carved rocks topped with Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) brickwork and towers.

On a clear day we'll be able to see how much Great Wall is in this area – rather a lot! – and we can sometimes see all the way over to Mutianyu, a famous tourist section of Great Wall.

At the tenth tower, we’ll leave the wall and follow a trail back to Xizhazi Village – steep and slippery at the beginning, flattening out as we pass through a lovely forested area and the villagers’ orchards and fields.

Our bus will be waiting for us at the village carpark, and we’ll unpack our picnic tables for snacks and cold drinks before we head back to Beijing.