Walking the Great Wall

This trip was a brilliant time; every day you're walking on the Great Wall of China, mostly in areas with few other tourists and amazing views. The weather was kind to us so the panoramas are spectacular. Our tour leader Stone was so organised and an incredible help in a country where most locals don't speak English (my Mandarin isn't too good either), and the food and hospitality at the local guesthouses was great too. Accommodation was better than expected having been described as basic!

A great hiking holiday walking different parts of the Great wall, from fully restored to original bricks. A mixture of tourist areas and wilderness.

What a fab 10 days!! Great walking, excellent guide, fab food ..

Walking was moderate to challenging in places for some people, the very fit may have found the pace slowed down a bit but more time to take in the views! The less walked sections were the best and we met very few other people unlike the more tourist sections but it didn't feel too over crowded in May. The guest houses were mainly better than we had anticipated, all were clean and the hosts were exceptionally welcoming and the food was plentiful.

The Great Wall is even more mind-blowing than in your imagination and doing this fantastic trip at the end of October is a great time to see it. We had beautiful autumn colours, with pleasant, warm days and slightly cooler mornings and evenings, and it's not crowded with visitors. It's suitable for people who are fit and enjoy walking, but it's most definitely not a trek, so if that's your thing you may not enjoy it as much as we did. You get to visit different parts of the wall - from the restored and more touristy, to completely wild and unrestored and we appreciated seeing these different facets. The toboggan at Mutianyou is a hoot so it's well worth giving yourself time to fit that in. The food was good quality and varied (though see below if you're veggie).The hotel in Beijing (Golden Sun Commercial Hotel) was very nice; a little away from the city centre but we enjoyed wandering the local hutongs, parks and temples and we easily got into town via the subway (Guang'anmennei station is an easy walk from the hotel).