Great Wall of China @ Mutianyu, China

Great Wall of China is one of the seven wonders of the world which is a must visit place when you are in Beijing. Tourist will usually choose between the Badaling, Mutianyu or Jinshanling section of the wall to visit. Badaling section is the nearest to Beijing and there is public transport by train. But Badaling is the busiest section and the most crowded. Jinshanling is the furthest from Beijing to do a day trip. From the 3 sections, I chose Mutianyu instead. I booked a bus tour from my hostel costing RMB280 Yuan. The best part of this tour is it does not include shopping trips. Some of the tours will bring you to shopping trips which is not much interest to you and it is waste of time. They do this to get extra commission from the shops and some evil tour will force the tourist to buy the items in the shop! The journey between Beijing and Mutianyu takes approximately 2 hours drive. The tour begins at 7.00am with a continental breakfast in hostel. The tour bus departs at 8.00am and reach Great Wall of China at 10.00am. When we reach there, the bus is only allowed to stop at the foot hill. In order to reach the wall, we have two options climbing up or taking cable car. Climbing up is not an option as we only have 3 hours to feel, walk and view the scenery of Great Wall. The cable car return trip cost another RMB80 Yuan. Climbing the stairs of the Great Wall is not an easy feat. You need to have stamina in order to complete the 22 towers along the Mutianyu sections. Each stairs are uneven and some part is ruin. Lunch is included in this bus tour. After lunch, the bus tour departs from Great Wall at 2.00pm and reach Beijing at 4.00pm.


Breakfast at hostel. Its a continental breakfast with scrambled egg, bacon, sausage, break and hush brown.

Our tour guide. He brief us about the Great Wall. He speak good English.

Walking up towards the cable car of Great Wall. There are many stalls selling souvenirs. Do bargain hard. Usually the actual price of the product is only 10-20% of their initial mentioned price.

Long queue to buy the cable car ticket.

Entrance ticket to the Great Wall of China.

Cable car ticket to the Great Wall of China.

Nice view. The cable car is just hanging.

Me on the cable car.


The stairs are pretty steep.

Towers along the Great Wall.


Inside one of the towers.

Many tourist on this section.

Each steps here is almost one-third of my body height.


Nice morning walk along the Great Wall.

Quite tough to climb over here. The wall is far harder to climb than what most of us think.

Be careful here. Slowly down the steps.

Surrounded by mountains.


School trip to Great Wall. I think the teachers will have hard time managing those students. They are so noisy and active.

The unique part of the Great Wall. Three barracks at one of the towers.


The Great Wall is long...

Expensive drinks and meals.


Me selfie on the Great Wall.


Bye Great Wall. Going down.

Market area around Great Wall.

Beautiful and classic paintings of China.

Souvenirs. Communist cap, paintings, guide book, soft toys and decorated umbrellas.

Time to go for lunch at Mr. Yang restaurant.

Lunch time. Included in the bus tour package.

All stir fry vegetarian meals.

In a full bus heading back to Beijing. I reached my hostel in Beijing at 4.00pm.

GPS/Coordinate: 40.429621, 116.568229
Tour cost: RMB280 Yuan.