Moyashike Valley and Jiankou’s ‘Big West’ Great Wall, 2017/1/29
See 30+ photos from a long hike that took us up, down, and out of shaded valleys on the way to the ‘Big West’ Great Wall at Jiankou.
We put on a variety of hikes during Spring Festival, and on this trail we were in and out of shaded valleys, and making some big climbs to see stretches of the Great Wall in the area.
The first part of the hike was on a trail up a long valley at Moyashike. In this valley there are old Ming Dynasty-era carvings on the cliffs. The carvings are usually difficult to spot, but we got a good look as we walked past today.
At the end of the valley we made a big climb to reach the Great Wall on the ridge below. We walk this section of wall on our Chinese Knot hike. Today our goal wasn’t the Chinese Knot, so after walking a short stretch here we hiked down in to the valley on the other side.
Down on the other side we followed another valley trail to get up to the ‘Big West’ wall, passing more cliffs and the ‘Mother and Son’ stones before a steep climb on a narrow hill trail.
We ended up on the wall on the other side of the Chinese Knot, and then headed in the direction of Nine-Eyes Tower.
With Jiankou being a popular area for hikers we usually see a bunch of people out here. But today we had the wall and views all to ourselves.
Our hike finished in Xizhazi Village, and we warmed up with some hot drinks before driving back to Beijing.