flyme2themoon,

Two weeks ago I paid 700RMB for a driver to pick me up at my hotel (Jade Garden, right on the edge of Wanfujing), at 7:30am and take me to the Jinshanling section of the Wall. I planned to be at the Wall until around 5pm and then the drive home. My driver was very nice and spoke fluent English. His name is Joe Qiao ([email protected]). I'm pretty sure that he said that he also does tours in/around Beijing. We talked the entire drive each way and he's very knowledgeable and has a passion about his city and country that really helps make it even more fun.

On the Wall, you really don't need a guide and the locals will follow you and walk with you if you don't actively discourage them from it. A lady walked with me for the second half of my time on the Wall and I simply purchased a book from her at the end. She was helpful for me as I was alone. A couple guys had hired a guide and really the guide seemed utterly useless. He would walk way ahead of them and then stand there and look around until they caught up again. He didn't seem to really speak to them, I never saw him point out which way they should go if there were two options (often the sign said to walk down the steep stairs then back up the other side but the local woman would say "this way good" and just walk across the top cutting out 20 steep stairs).

I'm entirely biased against Badaling to be honest. :) It's been redone so much that it's practically new (it even has railings up the sides). Where's the fun in that?? Mutianyu isn't much further and is still an easy hike without being quite so new and packed with people in the tourist seasons. If you do decide that you want Badaling, I want to say that there's a train line that goes up there and you wouldn't need a driver but I can't remember for sure.

thanks iowa. btw, i enjoyed reading your trip report, thanks for sharing your experience in china. if Mutianyu isnt that much farther compared to Badaling, I will definitely consider it. do you have any idea how much farther Mutianyu is in terms of distance or travel time? we will be staying at the Hilton in Wangfujing. also, how difficult a hike is Mutianyu? i would prefer to do easier hikes with not too much steep inclines.

We went to Mutianyu. I am pretty sure we used the chair lift to go up and I used it to come down as well. Violet also took us to a nice dumpling place.

You can walk as much of the wall as you wish. We did a good length but not to the end. My daughter walked to the end at the point where the reconstructed wall met the original (?) broken down wall.

We never used taxis since we had hired Kong Lin for the 4 days including airport pick up and drop off at the port.

I don't know how much further Mutianyu is compared to Badaling or the difficulty level, sorry. From everything I found before my trip, Mutianyu seemed to be the section that is suggested for people who don't want the crush and renovations of Badaling but still want a nice, easy walk. From that and also from what Joe said, Mutianyu is an easier walk than Jinshanling and I didn't think Jinshanling was really that difficult.

You might want to check with the people on GreatWallForum.com for better details. They were fantastic help for me and suggested Jinshanling for what I wanted. Many of the people on that forum, especially the moderators, have spent a significant amount of time on the Wall and can really compare and contrast the sections. I got most of my help off of TripAdvisor as this forum was pretty beat down for awhile and there are some good discussions on there regarding the different Wall sections (ease of the hike, time/methods to get there, etc).

thanks for the tip on greatwallforum.com. i did check it and found some useful ideas for our forthcoming trip. at this point, we are inclined to go to mutianyu. according to my research it's a little bit further north than badaling by maybe about 15 miles. i like the fact that they have a cable car in mutianyu in case we become too tired to walk back. however, the ming tombs is more along the way if going to badaling from central beijing

Thanks to all who posted on this thread. I am not sure what was removed, but thank you for continuing on to help the rest of us!

My husband will be going to Shanghai for work and then Beijing for a couple of days. Some of his co-workers will also be going. Can anyone tell me for Kong Lin, CTA, Joe Qiao or others mentioned above....
How many could ride in the guide's vehicle?
Does the price vary with number of ppl or is it a set price per person?

Thanks,

FiveAlive