A long hill climb takes us up on to a remote, rough, and seldom-visited stretch of unrestored Great Wall, with awesome views of the surrounding mountains.
Level 4
3–4 hours start to finish over 9km. (Can I do it?)
Post-hike snacks and drinks included; bring your own snacks, lunch and face mask.
Pay on the day of the hike.
More about payments
Important—Bring your passport/ID card. We cross into Hebei for this hike, and if there are checks at the border crossing it could delay our arrival back in Beijing.
Adventurous hike—the Great Wall out here is rough and tricky, and the climb back down from the wall takes us down a perpetually brushy section of trail, which may cause a bit of delay.
A large part of the hike is spent on trails up to and down from the wall. The actual walk on the wall itself is just over 2km in distance
Dragon Boat Festival holiday—we might run into bad traffic on the way to and from the hike, and may get back fairly late.
On this hike we’ll head out to the border of Beijing Municipality and Hebei Province for a moderately difficult walk through peach orchards, up valleys, and along the Great Wall.
The Great Wall out here is rough and seldom-visited—choose this hike if you're interested in a visit to a section of wall very different to what you've seen on postcards.
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhenbiancheng was one of three important outposts on the border, along with Changyucheng and Hengling. Modern Zhenbiancheng has grown in and around the old city walls. Much of the town walls still remain, as well as archways, bricks, and stone carvings.
In more recent times, the area was the site of a major battle between the Chinese and Japanese armies, and it’s said that bullet holes can be seen in some of the walls.
About the hiking trail
We'll follow an access road that begins near the village, and then up a leafy valley, passing through peach orchards before following a hill trail up to the Great Wall. For the first part of the valley we’ll be on a fairly flat trail, with views of the distinctive peaks of nearby ‘Brush-rest’ Mountain. From the head of the valley we’ll walk a hill trail that is moderately steep, arriving at a ruined tower on the Great Wall after 40-60 minutes of steady ascent. After a quick rest, we’ll continue along the wall, heading for another ruined tower that will be our lunch spot. The Great Wall in this area is not all in good condition, so for some of the hike we will need to walk alongside it.
After lunch, our hike continues on the wall, until we reach the the point where we’ll head down a valley. The trail down the valley is steep to begin with, but eventually it flattens out and leads us through grassy fallow fields on the way back to the roadside.
The first part of the trail down from the wall is seldom used and could be quite bushy.
COVID-19 and participation precautions
The brief version:
Please DO NOT participate if you are sick or showing symptoms of fever and/or have an elevated temperature, or have been in close contact with someone who was/is.
We saw the start of the autumn colours in the hills around the Great Wall at Zhenbiancheng—see 20+ photos from an up-and-down hike in the mountains just beyond Beijing's border with Hebei Province.