I highly recommend making the longer journey to this fantastic section of the Great Wall. I was lucky enough to have a local accompany me, who strongly advised against the other closer areas due to the high numbers of tourists. At Simatai, there was hardly any tourists and there was often only two 4-5 people along the wall sections between... more

The easiest route to the Great Wall from Beijing a bus to Badaling, but easiest does not mean the best. If you are adventurous and have a little extra time, go to Simatai! This is an unrestored section of the Wall, so the hike is a little more rugged. In turn, it is a little less crowded and much more... more

Visited June 05 on rare for Beijing, fine, clear, and very warm day. Hired a car for about 400RMB return, be sure to pay driver at end of trip!!!!!!!!, that way driver will wait to retun you to Beijing. Walked up to wall, which was not a good idea, as you climb about 1000Metres, take cable car and take a... more

The best experience ever in Beijing. This was one of the highlights! Breath-taking! Picture perfect! A must do! Now remember, the section of the Wall that people like Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera visit is in Badaling, the closest to Beijing. For this reason, Badaling is overrun by tourists and looks more like Disneyland than a piece of history and... more

I lived in China for three months and now whenever anybody asks me for recommendations about China, the first thing I say is "Go to The Great Wall at Simatai". In my opinion, this is the only way to see The Great Wall. It is a bit of a longer trip than to the oh-so-busy-tourist-trap version of The Great Wall... more

Like many of the people who have posted reviews on this trip, we visited several sections of the great wall during our time in Beijing. This "long walk" was far and away our favorite. My husband and I were late 50's when we did the walk, and it was fabulous. We did take group transport to the wall using http://www.greatwalladventure.com/joinus.htm.... more

At first we were unsure which part of the wall to discover on our first trip to Beijing. We knew we would hire a private driver rather than take a crowded tour. After posting on tripadvisor's forum and meeting two lovely people, we set up the day trip with a driver and off we went. The hike from Jinshaling to... more

Wow! That's all you can say! We just returned from this section of the Great Wall and it was an awesome experience. Like other readers we have seen the tourist sections and were reasonably impressed, but they were over done...in terms of re-making the wall to its former glory (not to mention all of the tourists). We wanted something a... more

Don't have anything to compare it to, but this was a great 3/4 day trip from Beijing. We spent about two hours on the Wall itself. The views were so magnificent that I could have spent more time, but the variety of the Wall itself probably wouldn't have been much different than what I was able to see. The bucket... more