I am now planning a trip to Beijing and came across this article in today's newspaper. I have not read many reports of visiting the Wall at the two places mentioned above, Jiankou and Jinahanling, and wonder if any travelers on this site have done so and if they would recommend?

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/11/2...tml?ref=travel

anyone??

In fall of 2004 I did the hike from Jinshaling to Simitai. I believe it was a little over 7 miles. It was very remote and beautiful. Some sections of the wall were in good condition, other sections were in poor condition and you had to watch your footing carefully. I am so glad we experienced this section of the 'wild wall', rather than the sanitized, rebuilt and crowded sections such as Badaling

i too hiked the jinshanling to simitai section of the wall. it was an absolutely breathtaking walk. you do not see a lot of other people on this section, but beware of the hawkers, they will follow you around until you shoo them off.

according to our guide the government is building a road that will take only 1.5 hours to get to simitai instead of 3 hours. also at simitai, there looked to be a mall being built at the trailhead, so that section does not look to be wild for much longer. i still highly recommend the hike!!

Thanks to both of you. Since I do not think I am up for the hike, would you still recommend visiting the Jinshanling portion of the wall from Beijing? Instead of Mutianyu, for example? The photo in the article looks pretty spectacular.

In August, we hiked the Jiankou to Jinshaling portion one day, and the Jinshaling to Simitai portion the next day. Wonderful, and I suggest making the efforto to go out as far as possible. On the Jiankou to Jinshaling portion, we did not see another soul the entire day. We also saw the Simitai road being built - a scar on the landscape. It will bring hoardes more tourists to the Great Wall.

Thanks for the responses so far. If I am not planning to do any hiking, which would be a better place to view the Great Wall..Mutianyu or Jinshanling? Frommer's guide mentions Jinshanling as being the least visited and least spoiled sectiion of the Wall that is easily accessible from the capital. Would a visit involve a long arduous hike to access the wall? I am reasonably physically fit but do not want to walk for two hours.

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Would a visit involve a long arduous hike to access the wall? I am reasonably physically fit but do not want to walk for two hours.
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i did the hike from jinshanling to simitei. i think it is still worth a visit if you cannot do the walk. however, i'm not sure of your condition but i think many of the descriptions of the walk are exaggerated...never have we felt that the climb was unsafe. someone in our party was pregnant and had no difficulty. i'm not saying that you should just do it but i think you should question some of the descriptions of the walk to make sure you are not discounting it without proper information.

if you decide not to do a walk, i would visit the simitei section. there is a cable car up to one of the wildest sections of the wall. i did not take the cable car but i would imagine that it takes you up to a high section without having to walk. the cable car departs from the car park at simitei...no walking at all. you should be able to do some (or no) walking at the let-off point of the cable car.

likewise, there is a cable car near the car park at jinshanling. but i would opt for the simitai one though because it goes to a higher ('wilder') part of the wall and it is closer to the car park. there are also less hawkers at the simitei start point of the cable car. at jinshanling, expect them to follow you aggressively up to the cable car from the car park (roughly 15 min walk if).

as for hawkers, yes, they can be very aggressive through the jinshanling to simitai walk. i found that a persistent "BYE-BYE!", "NO GUIDE!", or "NO SOUVENIR!" works the best. once we got used to the hawkers and learnt better how to deal with them, it was not too much of a bother. if you don't want a paid guide experience, do not listen to their commentary or allow them to follow. it should be obvious but if you let them be your guide, you will be expected to pay at the end. for the sake of both the hawker and you, just let it be known at the start that you do not want their services.

yes, it can be offputting but don't let it ruin your experience.

Wakinaround that is really good information. What had initially scared me about Simitai was mention in one of my guidebooks about having to use all four limbs to navigate the gravel-strewn paths. Upon reading the section of the book again (ok..it is Frommer's Beijing) I see that that description pertains only to the "most harrowing portion, steep and unrestored..on the east (right) side of the Miyun Reservoir." It goes on to caution about a thin, tilted ridge where the Wall narrows to only a few feet near the Tian Qiao, or Heavenly Bridge. So I don't HAVE to walk that part in order to get a good feel, right? I have no real physical problems, but I am kind of wimpy about rocky trails and such...so I did not want to undertake something that required loads of climbing on unsteady surfaces..

ek..

to clarify, the walk from jinshanling to simitai does not go on the very wildest simitai part of the wall. as you end the walk at simitai, you can see where the cable car goes...it is a very steep and undulating section of the wall (i did not climb this section). this is BEYOND the regular stop off point in simitai if you do the walk from jinshanling.

on the J to S stretch, there are some very short parts where you use your hands. however, this is very minor and more like ascending or descending on a bad staircase rather than like real rock climbing. there were some loose stones but not many and nothing any more dangerous than a very tame mountain/hill walk on an unpaved trail. i am mildly afraid of heights but had no problem.

the reason that i'm explaining this to you is that i felt that some of the descriptions made more of the 'danger' of this walk than what i experienced. this is not to say that it is easy. it is a lot of up and downs and it is quite long if you are not in good shape. but at no point did anyone regret that we chose to do the walk (not even the pregnant woman). this is far from a 'hardcore' walk and there were many regular people doing it (including many older people).