Hiking photos - Jinshanling Great Wall, 2011/09/21

The Jinshanling section of the Great Wall is one of our favourites: it's an impressive example of Ming Dynasty Great Wall, it has a mixture of restored and unrestored areas, and it's far enough out of the city to not be totally crowded.

The hike starts by walking up a paved road which leads to the Great Wall, where the exercise then starts in earnest, with a seemingly unending set of stone stairs which lead up to majestic guard towers and other high points on the Great Wall as it snakes off into the far distance.

The first part of the Jinshanling Great Wall that visitors see has been well restored, but after a while it gives way to sections of the Wall where no restoration work has been done and hikers can see the Great Wall in its “true” form, after having endured the effects of centuries of time, use, and weather.

This hike combines both steep and gradual ascents and descents as it follows the contours of the hills that it was built upon.