Hi all!

My husband and I are thinking of trekking Jinshanling-Simatai this Aug. 29. We're relatively fit (but far from athletes!) and have done treks in NZ and Spain. My questions/concerns:

1. Is this safe to do without a guide? We have a private car to drop us off at Jinsahnling and pick us up at Simatai, but no guide inbetween. Should we get one? Is the trek tricky? Dangerous?
2. How long will this trek take? I've read anything from 2.5 - 5 hours.
3. We have other people in our party that will just walk around Simatai, after dropping us off in Jinshanling. If they decide to leave us (if we're taking too long), is it easy to find transportation back to Beijing from Simatai?
4. We're planning on taking the cable car up and down the wall to save on time. Will we be missing anything spectacular? I'm concerned about danger (heard its a vertical ascent in Jinshanling) and time (since there are people waiting for us at Simatai).
5. I'm expecting the weather to be hot. We'll be bringing water and snacks. Anything else i'm missing?

Any comments will be most appreciated. I've read a lot of blogs, and some sites say its dangerous.

thank you!

kat

Tagging along on this question as we are doing this on Monday.

I've read the "danger" part is in regards to the footing in some places. If someone knows differently, I hope that they advise.

We aren't fans of a guide as we had one dropped on us with our car today at terra cotta warriors. We ordered a car only and specifically told them absolutely no guide. Well, a guide just happened to be there with the driver. It pretty much ruined our morning as they didn't take us where we wanted to go. They took us where <i>they</i> want to go.

I did this walk last month. You absolutely do not need a guide - it's perfectly safe. I took the cable car up so can't speak to what you might be missing by doing the ascent on foot, but it's easy to figure out which way to go once at the top.

The wall is very steep in places, but overall it isn't especially strenuous. It took me about three hours with lots of stops for pictures and resting. Take plenty of water; I drank almost four liters that day, and you won't want to buy from the ever-present vendors.

thanks tippecanoe! I suppose the walk took longer for others because they didn't take the cable car. I hope you aren't an olympic athlete, and that's why you found the trek not especially strenuous

I walked the wall at Simatai yesterday and no guide is needed nor any concern for safety.

We took the cable car up providing spectacular views, then the short train/tram up a very steep section taking us to a path where we climbed steep, winding stairs to the wall. This took about 15 minutes and were out of breath upon arrival. All three of us are in good shape (dh works out 2x/day).

From that entrance we went towards tower 12 and then worked our way westward to tower two mostly all downhill. If you are coming from Jinshanling it will be mostly uphill and up stairs all the way.

As mentioned, some areas of the wall have very steep steps that are uneven and quite tall. We were very glad to have saved our energy for the wall itself and not tiring ourselves too much with hiking up. The views from the cable car were beautiful.

We took the zip line down which was most fun. I believe it is at tower 2 area.

Make a point to go the tower 12 where the wall path ends. Spectacular view of the wall continuing up sharp, rocky cliffs.