I plunged my fingers into a crack in the ancient masonry, but it crumbled to dust in my fingers. Just below, yet out of sight in the thick foliage, dirt gave way beneath my feet and tumbled away down the steep mountain slope. My breath came quick and ragged as I hugged my body into the rock with all my might. I couldn’t stop thinking about the recent death of a Korean hiker, doing exactly what we were doing just now. Kent and I were in a precarious position, clinging to the edge of China’s Great Wall.
It wasn’t that we hadn’t done our research. Prior to our trip to China, I’d poured over blogs and guidebooks – and we’d spent the previous evening with our local hosts planning our attack on the remote Jiankou section of the fortifications. But we were wildly off-course, and getting a lot more adventure than we’d bargained for.
It was the hot, humid summer of 2017, and an obsession with the Middle Kingdom had set in. Hours of Zhang Yimou films had sealed the fate of our summer vacation, and we were on track pursuing one of my lifetime goals: to visit the Great Wall in person! But, being us, we couldn’t just go with the program and visit this wonder of the world the way others do. No late-starting, jam-packed tourist bus jaunt would do. We wanted adventure.
Hiking an unrestored section of the Great Wall at Jiankou promised that. But our climb up the Wall verged on being a little too adventurous! To this day, many years later, this still ranks as one of the craziest things we’ve ever done. It was certainly an experience of a lifetime.
Our excursion started off smoothly enough. It was still dark when we hopped in the back of a luxurious private car, and a friendly driver whisked us north of Beijing. Kent dozed while I looked out the window, too excited for sleep. As twilight brightened, I could see first the mountains, and then the Great Wall upon them. The drive towards it seemed to take ages, but finally, we arrived.
Perhaps we went awry before we even got out of the car. We stopped in the middle of a dirt road running through farmland. ‘That way,’ our driver said, gesturing ahead towards a cluster of buildings. There was a clear fork in the road. We tried asking for clarification: was the path a little more to the right, or to the left? The driver simply nodded and smiled encouragingly. When we didn’t get out, he did, coming around to open the back doors. ‘Go go!’ he cheered with heartfelt enthusiasm.
And so, we went. As did our driver, peeling away in a spray of gravel. There were signs to either side of the road, in both English and Chinese, warning against trying to access the Great Wall from this point. This was not exactly encouraging, given that was exactly what we planned to do. But we didn’t have long to ponder this, because our first decision point was only a couple hundred meters away.
At the fork in the road, we went right. Our choice was largely determined by the fact that the path began to veer up a green hillside. Up was the direction that we wanted to go., after all. The Jiankou Great Wall towered above us, awe-inspiring and legendary, beckoning us nearer.
We crossed paths with a few goats and chickens before our trail disappeared into the bush. Turning around, we tried to pick out the trail, but struggled to find it in the luxuriant grass up over our knees and thick bush that obscured anything more distant than arm’s length. From below, we’d been able to see the Wall atop a jagged ridge. But from here? Nothing but green.
Instead of turning back and retracing our steps, we plunged deeper into the bush. There was a case to be made for better visibility on top of the ridge. Besides, we figured, we’d only just been on a trail – it’s continuation must be somewhere nearby. If we kept looking, surely it would become obvious, and we wouldn’t waste any time going backwards.
In addition to our eagerness to make progress, we were hesitant to turn around for another reason: we did not want to be caught. The signs we’d seen on the road discouraged us from heading towards the buildings or seeking out a local for assistance. We had no way of knowing if our route was illegal or just ill-advised. What if, upon seeing us, the farmers called the police? We had no phone, no ID on us, and most importantly, no excuses.
First thing in the morning, our biggest worry was about having our Great Wall, Great Adventure plans foiled. But this was quickly replaced with other, more serious concerns. As we whacked our way through the weeds, gaining ground ever so slowly, tensions rose. Soon, a full-scale argument broke out. I was sure I could see the trail going one way, while Kent insisted it must go in the opposite direction. Striking out on both headings, the topic swiftly shifted to whose fault it was, exactly, that we were in this conundrum.
At one point, we stopped for a breather in a natural clearing. We could see the Great Wall once again! And it seems like we had advanced somewhat. We were now far above the cluster of buildings near where we’d started – but we were still far below the craggy ridges the Wall was perched on. The incautious decision to carry on was made unanimously, despite our disagreements on seemingly everything else.
The tough going quickly got tougher still. Branches tore my running clothes, gouged my exposed skin and repeatedly whipped me across the face and chest as I swam into the undergrowth. Kent followed, swearing and sweating furiously. Suddenly, he called to me. He’d just realized set his camera down where we stopped earlier. We turned to race back to the clearing.
We both thought it would be easy to follow the trail of broken branches back to where we’d been mere minutes ago, but it wasn’t. It was as though the very trees of the forest conspired against us moving through it. Nothing looked remotely familiar as we went downhill, and we spent at least twenty minutes tracing panicked, scratchy circles through the dense brush before we finally found the clearing, and the camera.
We continued. Thick as the foliage was, we started to see surprising signs of human activity. Normally I’m appalled by litter. On this day, I was positively delighted to see a rusty tin can! Clawing slightly further along, there was a discarded old windbreaker caked in mud and half buried in leaf-litter. These signs sealed our fate, if it wasn’t already set. We would keep going, because others had once done the same.
The further we got, turning back became less and less of an option. The terrain steepened, requiring me to climb on all fours at times. And as we’d already proved to ourselves, it was just as easy to get lost going backward as it was going forward. I had just one thought, one focus: just reach the Wall.
The Wall loomed up suddenly out of the green gloom. We’d made it! I could have hugged those storied stones. Here it was, right in front of us; solid and real.
However, to my dismay, reaching the Great Wall did not solve all of our problems. Instead, we had a new one: how to get on the Great Wall. Our unorthodox approach meant that we’d come upon this wonder as exactly the barrier it was meant to be. It did not escape our attention that we were now in the position the Mongols had been in centuries before.
The Great Wall was both a symbol of power and a very real barrier in China’s history. What had made us think that we could simply walk up to it and climb it? And this Jiankou: the most rugged section, with original masonry dating back to 1368! There were no modern staircases, not even an old ladder or a rope. If we were crazy enough to bushwhack our way to the Wall, we would have to be crazy enough to climb, hand-over-hand, up it.
I have no qualms about admitting how scared I was at this point. The Wall rose straight up overhead. Turning around, very carefully, reminded me that we were poised just over thin air: above a massive drop into the unforgiving brambles of this untamed forest. In fact, it was steeper than I’d even recalled, but then again, I’d had my nose to the dirt on the way up.
There were two competing thoughts racing through my brain then: the first was that going up is always easier than going down (especially for me, and especially in terrain like this), but the second was a panicked reminder of news report I’d read prior to the trip. It was a sobering tale: an experienced Korean hiker had set off alone to conquer an unrestored section of the Great Wall on a lesser-known route, and perished. The description of his misadventure was not altogether unlike ours, and thinking about it made my blood run cold.
Rescue was unlikely. Nobody knew we were there – only our driver would miss us, and he might assume we took a bus back if we couldn’t find him. Our phone didn’t work in China, so we couldn’t call for help for ourselves. The likelihood of coming upon other hikers, especially in the impenetrable forest below, seemed slim. A fall would mean injury, if not worse, and the possibility of coming to completely lost in the woods.
As I remained frozen with these thoughts, clinging to a spiny branch with one hand and a rocky protrusion of the Wall in the other, Kent sidled past me to look for a good way up. The Wall is not a monolith, it’s made of rocks and brick and rammed earth in places. He figured there had to be a better way up than the place we’d happened to reach first.
He was right, sort of. Not to far to the left of the place where I turned into a sculpture of terror, there was a place where the Wall was ever so slightly less vertical. If we climbed slowly and carefully, using the nearby trees for support, we just might make it to the top of the Wall. No guarantees, and what we would find on top was a mystery. But we had to try.
I remember pressing my body into the rock, and pushing and pulling with all my might. I remember scraping my cheek against the old stone and promising myself to look only for my next handhold, never down. Inch-by-inch, I slowly followed Kent up this formidable barrier. Time seemed to stand still, and I feared that any minute the rock would completely give way or my muscles would fail me. I thought I’d slip, and I could not afford to. Hauling myself onto the mercifully flat surface of the top of the Great Wall at last, I shook with adrenaline. But I was alive!
It took me a long time to gather myself. In something of a role reversal, Kent was jubilant; I was struck speechless. Finally seated on the Great Wall – albeit unable to stop clinging to the rocks – I was mute and my mind blank. The first thought that surfaced was that I had to fix my ponytail, which had been ripped out on the climb.
Hair out of my face, it seemed I’d gained some measure of control over the situation. I let out a delayed whoop and threw up a fist. Kent looked at me, and we grinned at each other. We had done it: we were hiking on the Great Wall of China!
The scenery was surreal. The Jiankou section of the Great Wall snakes along a rugged ridge that rivals the spires of any great massif. To either side of the Wall, as far as the eye could see, were plunging buff-colored cliffs and wild green valleys. There were stone staircases up the sides of sheer pinnacles that were heightened by the crumbling remains of imposing guard towers. It was like we’d stepped straight back in time. There’s a reason this is known as the most photogenic section of the Wall!
From then on, the rest of the hike was magical. Which is not to say easy. We tested every step gingerly when we set foot inside one of the tower ruins. We passed several, each guarded by a pair of intimidating steps. Each of these stone staircases was just shy of vertical and dozens of steps long. Going up required three points of contact at all times, and patience for slow and steady progress. Going down required nerves of steel, a firm grip and a lot of faith about the condition of the next foothold.
But with views so stunning, we delighted in every moment of it! In places, the top of the Wall was so shattered that we had to scramble down and walk alongside it, in the rubble. In other places, the forest had begun to grow on the top of the Wall as well, and we skirted trees and dodged prickly bushes. It was all part of the adventure, and we relished being on this incredible section of the original Wall.
And we were alone! Or, almost alone. On a distant tower behind us, we could see a couple of colorful tents and a handful of hikers. So we weren’t the only ones to take this route today. Just like the trash earlier, this knowledge served as reassurance rather than annoyance. Survival had made me generous; happy to share this experience, and joyful beyond measure.
As we carried on down the Wall, we explored guard towers! Peeked over the edge to see the stone disappear into the forest. We heaved ourselves up the kink in the Wall known as the Ox Horn, then skidded our way down. Our dangerous ascent receded into the morning, and the rest was pure playtime.
All too soon we began to see hiking ribbons, then red wishing ribbons. We were nearing civilization again. But nothing could burst our bubble of good cheer, least of all the sight of a friendly gentleman setting up his refreshment stand in advance of (most) of the day’s customers.
‘Hello!’ we cried, running towards him. He started, clearly surprised to see anyone so early, and coming from the wrong direction. We chatted, took a few selfies together and shopped. We bought wishing ribbons of our own, a cool drink and a funny medal to commemorate our climb. And then we carried on.
We’d reached the restored section of the Great Wall at Mutianyu. The walkway on the Wall widened and flattened. The masonry evened out and appeared more modern. At the next tower, we joined the day’s tourist crowds. But as we did, we were struck all over again by the incredible presence of this place. It doesn’t matter if it’s full of people, it’s amazing anyway. It’s no wonder this is a wonder of the world. We came to the conclusion that any experience on the Great Wall is a worthwhile one. It’s just an incredibly special place.
At the end of the Mutianyu section, we jogged down the broad brick steps into the maze of stalls selling Great Wall merchandise, and found ourselves a Subway, where we promptly ordered two footlong sandwiches. Each.
By some miracle (not the first one of the day!), we found our driver, who clapped his hands and beamed upon seeing us. Running over, he shook our hands and gave us each a couple of hearty thumps on our sweaty backs before packing us into his car for the ride home. Both Kent and I fell asleep immediately, and so had the impression upon waking that we had teleported straight from the historical Wall to our hostel in the bustling heart of modern Beijing.
The heady after-effects of our survival by slim margins carried over. I relished food and drink with especial zeal, and we were exuberant and friendly for the rest of our trip.
But in the night, we clung to one another and whispered assurances that we would never again do something quite so dangerous. How close we were to complete disaster, we’ll never know, but we agreed that it was probably much too close. We’d had an amazing adventure, to be sure, but we’d been extremely lucky and we both knew it.
Know and Go! The Great Wall of China
NEED TO KNOW
The Great Wall of China is not a single, continuous, mountain-top wall like you might imagine. It has many sections, built at different times and for different purposes – even with different materials! If you want to do a Great Wall hike – and you should! – you’re going to want to do more research. My expertise is limited to a short section of the Wall at Mutianyu and Jiankou, near Beijing. There are a number of popular hikes in this area, but I encourage you to look further afield for lesser-known Wall wonders too!
Additionally, I do not endorse anyone following directly in our footsteps, for reasons that should be obvious based on the story above. We did something dangerous, and I would hate to see anyone get hurt or worse based on reading one of my articles. It’s also unclear as to whether independent tourism in this area is permitted. Please take these warnings to heart and make smarter decisions, than we did, okay? There is a better way up to the Jiankou Wall: ask for help finding it or download a GPS map well in advance. No shame in hiring a local guide, either. A Great Wall hike can be an adventure of a lifetime, but it should definitely not be your last.
TRANSPORTATION
In the interest of transparency, I’ll have you know we did not do this the cheapest, most independent way possible. We arranged a car and driver through our hostel rather than negotiate a public bus (or group tour). While this is a more expensive option, it has several other benefits to recommend it – most importantly, that you can do your route on your schedule.
If that sounds right for you too, try asking the folks at your accommodation in Beijing! A word of advice: don’t give up! It’s easier for everyone if you agree to join a package tour. But if you want to go early (recommended!) or independently (also recommended!), keep trying. Explain what you want and what you don’t want. And if you strike out with one employee, ask another or inquire among your fellow guests.
You certainly can get to China’s Great Wall via public bus or tour as well. Those options will be many, and the best source of up to date info will also be your guesthouse or hotel (or agent).
HIKE & RUN
There are so many places you can walk or run on China’s Great Wall! I used to dream of running The Great Wall Marathon, but there’s so much you can do independently too. As previously mentioned, there are many sections of the Wall that are open to the public, both restored (for easier going) and unrestored (if you like things a little wild). Badaling and Mutianyu are the most visited sections, featuring easy access to the Wall (think cable cars, zip lines and even a toboggan track!). Jiankou is famed for it’s beauty, as are the more remote Jianshinling sections.
If I was to offer you a recommendation, I can’t help but suggest a modification of our route. I personally adored Jiankou – it’s a photographer’s dream! And you have nice views of Jiankou from slightly lower down on the Mutianyu section. Hiking both restored and original Wall provides a nice contrast, too.
I would also highly recommend opting for a point-to-point route so that you can explore more of the Great Wall. Better tours allow for this, and you should be able to arrange a driver to drop you at one point and pick you up at another. Why not see as much as you can, since you came all this way to one of the wonders of the world?
STAY & EAT
There are actually numerous facilities for tourists at the base of the Wall, particularly in Mutianyu. We even ate fresh, if you know what I mean! Food stalls are plentiful as well for the more adventurous. Accommodations are mostly small homestays that are normally arranged in advance. At least when we were there, there wasn’t much in the way of hostels or big hotels.
And that’s likely because most tourists visit the Great Wall from Beijing, where there are a lot more options. The Wall is close enough, just 90 minutes away from downtown Beijing, to make it a fairly convenient day trip.
If you want more than a few hours worth of Great Wall, though, you’ve got options. If we ever go back, I think we’d go on a private, guided camping trip! Imagine witnessing sunrise and sunset from the Great Wall, and enjoying multiple days of historical hiking!
OTHER NOTES
Our Great Wall hike was a lucky 8.8 kilometers! It was part of our Sichuan Summer in 2017 – a two-week tour de force of several of China’s natural and historical highlights.
May your Great Wall outing be…GREAT! 🙂