Hiking photos – Nine-Eyes tower and Pizza Hike, 2012/05/26

Were you on this trip? How did you like it? We'd love to hear from you.

• Send us feedback • Review it on TripAdvisor • Share this page on Facebook

Our Nine-Eyes Tower hike is an excellent scenic Great Wall hike – quite short, but rather steep! On this visit, we'd added something special to our regular routine: freshly-made pizza after the hike, at a renovated courtyard house at Jiankou Village.

The first high point of the hike was the Nine-Eyes Tower, one of the highest towers in the Jiankou area. Built in 1543 AD, the tower is named for the nine windows in each side. At near 1,200m above sea level, we had 360° views of the surrounding hills and mountains, with the towers of nearby stretches of Great Wall visible on the hills in the distance.

From the tower we headed down a hill trail, and pushed through some thick vegetation as we walked south along a stretch of wall. Just before reaching a super-steep section of wall we jumped off, following a slippery hill trail back down to the village where we began the day.

The second high point of the hike: a feast of delicious Gung Ho! gourmet pizza, cooked fresh in the pizza oven at the Gung Ho! Hut in Jiankou Village.

Many thanks to the Gung Ho! gentlemen for putting on such a fine feed. Find out more about them (and their fantastic food) at www.gunghopizza.com.

The Hike