Beijing Day 4 - The Great Wall at Mutianyu

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Of all the planned sights and destinations on our trip, the one that I was most nervous about was finding the Great Wall.

Most people who have been to the Wall would probably be laughing right now. It is like 3,000 miles long, after all. Reading travel blogs and reviews, it seemed like there was no way to avoid seeing the wall...

"Just ask your concierge to book you on a tour tomorrow!"

"Find the 'Great Wall' tourist bus that leaves every morning at 9am."

"Just pay a taxi to take you there."

"It's hard to wander south of Tiananmen Square without encountering the many buses going to (the Great Wall at) Badaling." - Fodor's Beijing

O yes, I've read them all. But if you read this blog much, you will know that I don't like to do things the easy...er...tourist way. It's not that I don't like to see tourist sights, it's that I like to see them at my own pace, and without being shuttled around like cattle. Most of these tours give you about an hour on the Wall before shoving you back on a bus to 3 other sights before they drop you off at an overpriced pearl market for the day. Being with 3 kids complicates things further, since we usually have to pay full price for them and they just end up bored during the endless lectures from mindless tour guides.

We could have just taken a local subway and bus to The Great Wall near the town of Badaling. It is very convenient, and is where most dignitaries go for a quick photo-op. But there was something more that drew us to the town of Mutianyu, which is only another 13 miles (in another direction) from Beijing. This location is listed as 'Fodor's Choice' for location to see the Wall because it is 'significantly less crowded', and offers 'unforgettable views of towers winding across mountains and woodlands'. Even more importantly, though, was that they had a toboggan slide! More on this later.

Ok, so 13 miles on a 56 mile journey shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? Well, this is why I became nervous about this trip. There are no published tour buses, no 'easy way' public transit routes, and taxis don't go this far. I was able to find several trip reports claiming there is an unpublished (in English, anyway) commuter bus route that takes you there. It was very mysterious and ever-changing--some would claim that a bus left for the Wall every morning, some would say that the bus takes 3 hours and ended up dropping you off a suburb where there were only pushy private car drivers.

Well, after a lot of research, I found that there are indeed 2 bus routes that leave from a bus station in Beijing...one that only runs in peak tourist season, which we just missed by a few weeks. The second option was the 916 commuter bus from Dongzhimen station to the suburb of Huairou, where you can catch a local taxi or minibus to the wall. This was the bus that some claimed took 3 hours, but it turns out that an 'express' route avoids most of the stops and only takes an hour.

So, we found ourselves at a busy underground bus station, waiting beside a mostly chinese sign that lists '916' as one of the routes. I am especially on edge because ever since we stepped out of the subway, several people in official looking red jackets began following us. Supposedly, these were actually tour guides that tried to divert wandering tourists, such as ourselves, onto their own coach buses for the before-mentioned tourist cattle drive. Then, a bus arrived, with 916 on the lighted sign, and we were told by an attendant that this bus goes to Huairou. Great, we're on board!

The bus ride was rather interesting, but we'll skip that for a later post. After about an hour of freeways and random suburb stops, I recognized that we were nearing the stop that was listed on several travel blogs where we can catch a minibus to the Wall. Unexpectedly, the 'attendent', who had been taking tickets at the front of the bus, told us that this was the stop and literally pushed us off the bus. As soon as the door shut behind us, he got off and immediately told us that he had a car and could take us there for a cheap price. Boy, had we been played! His price was quite a bit cheaper than a private car from Beijing...Ok, I gave in, but not before ensuring that he was ONLY to take us to the Wall and back, and that we would not pay him in full until we got back. To my surprise, he agreed, and didn't even want a deposit.

Twenty minutes later, we found ourselves at the foot of a chair lift, much like those used on ski slopes. This was also what made the Mutianyu location special - you get to take a very beautiful and serene chair lift through the mountainside to the Wall, and then on the way back, ride a toboggan slide all the way down to the bottom. The slide was actually what kept the kids engaged and excited about the whole experience.

On the wall, we were treated to quite a sight. Being up high on a mountain, the Wall offered amazing views of the surrounding watch towers and beautiful country. The kids (who could care less about the scenery) had fun running around, but quickly found that it wasn't the cake walk that we had imagined. At times, the stairs were extremely steep and slippery, and we had to carry them to the highest watch towers. There were also several very pushy souvenir salesmen, who tried their hardest to play our kids into begging for something. Luckily, we trained Alex well. "No tank you!", he would tell each one of them, then keep walking.

We prepped the kids with stories about the Great Wall, why it existed, and who it was meant to keep out. Keeping this momentum going, we spent a lot of time talking about how it would be to guard the wall every day, standing at the top of a tower in the blowing snow, or running up those steep stairs to light the nearest signal fire after seeing a line of advancing Mongols. We were, after all, on one of the Wonders of the World, and we wanted to make sure the kids remembered it with stories and experiences of their own.

Ok, enough of the stories. "Let's go slide!" was a common chant from the kids. At the foot of the wall was the start of the long slide down the hill. We saw that there were 2-person sleds, so we assumed that one of us could hold 2 kids (2 kids = 1 person, right?). The attendants didn't agree. After some arguing about how we had already paid for the slide, one of the attendents agreed to slide with a kid. Alex immediately volunteered. And so, we all flew down the mountain, with Dad and Brecklyn in the lead, volunteer driver and Alex in the middle, and Mom bringing up the rear with Grace. I also found out that there was apparently an unmarked speed limit, since people kept jumping out, waiving their hands and signaling to slow down.

Back in the village, we found our driver who agreed to take us to a nearby restaurant that he claimed was much better and cheaper than the nearby tourist stands. He didn't disappoint. The restaurant was as close to a roadside diner as you could get in China, although it would clearly be out of place on 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives'. Once again of course, we were the center of attention, as the waitress actually pulled up a chair and watched Alex eat his noodles.

Now that I think about the day, I actually remember the trip to and from Mutianyu more vividly than being on the Wall itself. Even though it didn't go exactly as planned, we got to experience a little of life outside the city, and doing it at our own pace helped to keep the kids interested, educated, and well fed.

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Photos

3 Experiences, 1 Photo
The Great Wall, the way up, and the way down.