Private Hiking Tour: From Simatai West to Jinshanling for Great Wall Exploration
5.0
15 Ratings
Luanping County
Embark on a private hiking tour from Simatai West to Jinshanling and explore the original and well-preserved ruins of the Great Wall. Enjoy a crowd-free experience and personalized guidance throughout the journey.
Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Jinshanling Great Wall - As the most popular hiking trip of the Great Wall around Beijing, it will show you both Simatai and Jinshanling sections of the wall within 3 hours. A 40-minute steps walking up will lead you to East-Five-Eye watchtower at Simatai West. You may take a few breaths before reaching the Wall, and will be rewarded by the breathtaking panoramic view of this amazing human constructions. Take a short break and some photos here, we will then walk westward to Jinshanling. We will get off the wall at Shalingkou at Jinshanling, alternatively you can walk another 30 minutes if you feel energetic and then get off the wall at Zhuanduokou . The un-restored wall, the watch towers, the beacon towers snake on the mountain from east to west. You will have chance to meet local farmer friends, try local home-made food and learn local community development. It is the best place for keen photographers along the wall. Regarding fitness it is a medium-level hiking for all ages.

Pick you up at your hotel at 8am and then drive to Simatai West. You will start the hiking around 10:30 am, and it will take about 3 hours to complete the hiking. A lunch at a local farmer’s restaurant will be organized after the hiking before returning your hotel.

This section offers arguably the finest hiking anywhere on the Great Wall. It is extremely photogenic, with over 15 watch-towers, and steep gradients that give constantly changing perspectives and wide, open views. There is fascinating variety in the watch-towers here. Some have two storeys, others three. Some have flat roofs, others rounded and others again are pitched with upturned eaves. This section of the wall is wild, ruined, preserved and original. On a clear day, it is difficult to fail to take good photographs here.

What's Included
  • Bottled water
  • Great Wall entrance fees
  • Expert English-speaking hiking guide
  • Lunch at local farmer’s restaurant
  • Air-conditioned transport with driver
What's Not Included
  • Cable car fees
  • Tipping of hiking guide/driver recommended on good service on a 2:1 ratio separately.
  • Personal expenses.
  • Travel insurance.
Additional Information

Embark on a journey along the untouched sections of the Jinshanling Great Wall, surrounded by its well-preserved ruins - devoid of crowded tourists. This will allow you to fully experience the magnificence of China’s iconic historical monument whether you are scaling its ancient stone steps or walking through the remnants of an old watchtower.

This private one-day hiking tour of Jinshanling Great Wall ensures you have your own dedicated guide accompanying you every step of the way. The guide will adapt to your needs enabling flexible plans so you can maximize the experience of your tour.

  • Children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • There is no toilet along the path on the Wall. There are toilets at the entrance of Simatai West and Jinshanling. Please prepare before hiking and always carry toilet paper by yourself.
  • Please don’t make any appointment after the trip as the return depending on the traffic between 5-6 pm.
  • Unlimited bottled waters are stored in the car/van, and you need a day pack to carry them.
  • You will be followed by local farmers when starting the hike. The farmers will give you help along the way, as a reward they will sell some souvenirs. If you don’t like this, you have to say NO firmly at the beginning or just ignore them and not speak a word with them; otherwise they can be persistent and follow you all the way on the Wall.
  • Travel insurance is optional and is the sole responsibility of travelers. It is encouraged to have coverage of injury or accident.
  • As responsible travelers, we “take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprint”.
Location
Jinshanling Great Wall
Chengde Shi
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
5.0
(15 Ratings)
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Der
Oct 22, 2019
Time to take a deep breath - It was our final trip on this journey to China and it was definitelly one of the best trips I ever had. Our tour guide Bob took us to a more rural area of the Great Wall to start our trip. We started at a little hiking village and went up the wall by a hiking path to arrive at a partially destroid part of the Great Wall - it was an impressive view and one to behold. For the next hours we walked over this old part of the wall which was mostly bare of any other people; only ocotionally we met another pair hikers on our path. Further and further we went on top and and along the wall to finally make our way to the renovated part for our final descending to our pick-up spot. For every view and and every questions we had, Bob had an interesting and informative answer; we enjoyed our time with him and learned a lot about Chinese history and culture.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sethlawl
Sep 14, 2019
Breathtaking - No matter how many photos you have seen, to go up there and spend a few hours walking along the wall trying to take in the enormity of it is an amazing experience. Guide Bob Chen and the driver made sure the whole day was interesting, efficient and well organized. The lunch we had near the wall was also some of the best I had in my 5 days in China. Highly recommended! : )
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Yvonne
Aug 31, 2019
Awesome day trip - If you like hiking, this is a wonderful way to see the great wall. There were only three of us on the trip (I think the maximum would have been 5) and we literally had the wall all to ourselves at the start of the hike. Our guide Dewit was very enthusiastic. He brought us all snicker bars as snacks and him and the driver provided us with frozen water bottles which they kept in the cooler as it was a hot day! Great day out and a much quieter area of the wall, highly recommend it.
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Lsvenning1
Aug 19, 2019
Jinshanling Great Wall Tour from Beijing - Great tour. Bob our guide was great. Very informative and nice. He takes great pictures and knows the best places to stop for the best views of the wall. Would recommend to anyone who wants to see the Great Wall.
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Phxryan
Jul 29, 2019
Great (VIGOROUS!) tour of the Great Wall - Bob Chen and driver picked me up at my Beijing hotel for the daytrip to Jinshanling portion of the Great Wall. The booking indicated that it would be 90 minutes or a 2 hour drive to this portion of the wall, but due to Beijing traffic, it was longer. No sweat, Bob has a lot of history and stories about Beijing and the Great Wall. The booking also indicated that it would be a small group of 5 guests ... but it was just me. Private tour, which was excellent. What I didn't fully comprehend was how vigorous this tour would be. I'm in decent shape, but the 1500 stairs required to get from the parking lot to the wall itself was vigorous. Then, we hiked on the wall for a couple of hours before an excellent lunch at a local spot. Unlike Badaling, this part of the wall had only a few visitors (maybe because of the high heat and humidity). Bob was an excellent tour guide. He also brought a snack and extra water - which was needed due to the conditions. It was a memorable once-in-a-lifetime kind of excursion.
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332jessica
Jun 20, 2019
Awesome tour of the Great Wall - We couldn't have enjoyed our day with Alex more than we did! He and his driver picked us up from our hotel and Alex spent the drive to the Wall telling us many interesting facts about the history. Once we arrived, we really enjoyed our hike. ALex made it fun and fascinating. We would definitely do it again!
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Tomáš
Jun 12, 2019
A great visit of great wall - It is a great visit of great wall. Not overcrowded. Many times we were alone on the great wall. The guide Bob Chen was Věry helful And friendly.
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Willgarden37421
Jun 9, 2019
My hiking tour at Jinshanling Great Wall - Many people from all over the world think someday they would like to see the Great Wall of China. I was one of them, and at age 65( retired male firefighter) I decided this would be the year. But where to start, first of all i had never traveled to Asia and had only traveled without my wife once in 15 years of marriage( I think fear of the unknown made her not want to make this trip) I myself was filled with fear of the unknown, I began to research what i needed to know, 1. I needed a visa to enter China 2. I needed to have a itinerary in order to get the visa. Once I decided what days and what hotel i would stay at, I looked at ways to see the Great Wall( as well as the Forbidden City) one year on a trip to Barcelona i discovered tripadvisor reviews and found a highly rated tour guide, booked a tour for five people and everyone enjoyed it, so for my China tours i went straight to trip advisor( yes i still had concerns about the reviews i was reading being legit) Reviews read concerns and fear still present I took a leap of faith and booked with the Trippest tours. Correspondence with them from home was easy which helped alleviate my fears. The day before my scheduled tour I received a text from Bob Chen while at the hotel( I only had phone service over wifi, which was another story all together) Bob Chen my tour guide let me know that we would be meeting in my hotel lobby the next morning at 7am(smile from me, my Great Wall tour was going to happen.) I met Bob the next morning and after a warm greeting he escorted me outside to our car and it's driver, Bob informed me we would be picking up one more person before leaving Beijing. It was a really nice ride to the mountains and on the way Bob gave us so much information and history it was a real plus. The date of my tour was 20 May 2019 the weather was extremely nice and it was a windy day.Full disclosure as a 65 year old I initially questioned my decision to take the hiking tour when we started taking the stairs up to reach the wall( Bob and the other tourist we both in their 30's) but I persevered got my second wind and after reaching the wall I was completely driven by the experience of just being there. As in the ride on the way there Bob gave us information and history as well as some good stories. Half way we stopped to take a break and have some snacks that were provided to us. I sure each person experience will be different but if you get Bob as your guide I'm sure it will be a great one. There as restrooms along the way but plan your drinking accordingly if you'er and older male like me.At the end of the hike we we treated to a really nice lunch( me being a lacto-ovo vegetarian) really great vegetables and tofu for me and meat choices for everyone else.They even had really good wifi there. I could go on about my experience but i sure my writing is getting boring. I"ll finish by saying I don't think you will have any regets picking Trippest Tour Group and if you are lucky enough to get Bob Chen as your guide you will have one of the best guides available he will help leave you with many memories. Enjoy the Great Wall.
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Federico
May 27, 2019
Superb walk on a quiet and spectacular section of the wall - Although farer from the other typical locations, the Jinshanling section of the wall was ideal since there were very few visitors and we could really enjoy the wall for ourselves. The pick-up and travel were great, in a very comfortable car. The guide, Colin, was superb: very kind, competent, and careful, and he could speak very good english. I could not have dreamt a more beautiful experience on the wall.
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Nliendod
May 23, 2019
Proposal at the Great Wall - Jin was the best tour guide ever, he prepared our Moment carefuly and made this moment very spetial. 100% recomendable!!!
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