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Great Wall at Simatai


TripAdvisor Traveler Rating: 5.0 of 5 stars
TripAdvisor Popularity Index: #3 of 194 attractions in Beijing
Traveler Description: The Simatai Great Wall is on the blade of the mountains. Located northeast of Beijing, it is one of the few sections of the wall to retain the... more »
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Attraction type: Landmark/point of interest, Historic site
Address: Gubeikou Town, Miyun District Beijing
China

Reviews you can trust

[ Date ] [ Rating ]
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5 of 5 stars
Kenryuu   19 contributions
Singapore
Nov 22, 2009

Forget about Badaling, Mutianyu, just go to Simatai - Jinshanlin Great Wall. On 21 Nov 2009, I paid RMB 420+RMB 50 (For Jinshanling Ticket) with this Chinese Tour Agency @ http://www.cits.com.cn/citsonlineWeb/switchdo.do?prefix=/oneday&page=/detailInfo.do&route_id=07000002743 The travel from Beijing is about 3 hours / 140km, to a tiny town near Hebei Province known as Gubeikou where of Great Walls of Jinshanling Great Wall and... more

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5 of 5 stars
Jetsetter_AU   17 contributions
Australia
Nov 5, 2009

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

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5 of 5 stars
roadrunner399   1 contribution
roadrunner399
Oct 8, 2009

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

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5 of 5 stars
MikeQldAustralia   1 contribution
Qld. Australia
Sep 29, 2009

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

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5 of 5 stars
perusboy   38 contributions
New York City
Sep 22, 2009
2/2 found this review helpful

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

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5 of 5 stars
a_green_mama   9 contributions
Toronto, Ontario
Aug 27, 2009
1/1 found this review helpful

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

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5 of 5 stars
budgettraveler8   4 contributions
Phoenix
Aug 24, 2009

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

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5 of 5 stars
TorontoTara   24 contributions
Toronto
Jul 19, 2009
1/1 found this review helpful

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

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5 of 5 stars
VolinAsia   3 contributions
Shanghai
Jun 1, 2009

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

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5 of 5 stars
thornburgr   17 contributions
Chapel Hill, NC
May 25, 2009
1/1 found this review helpful

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

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Great Wall at Simatai Address

Gubeikou Town, Miyun District, Beijing, China