Now this is an extreme challenge! Let’s all keep in mind the Great Wall of China is an unimaginable feat of engineering on a massive scale, it was designed to keep out the Mongolian hordes and is 5000 km long…what do Steve (intrepid adventurer and first time hiker) and I (adventurer who constantly underestimates level of difficulty of hikes and walks like she is running late to catch a train) decide to do? Let’s walk 10 of those km’s between Jinshanling & Simatai, 2 points of the wall which are known for their crazily steep inclines (60 degree angles up!) and very dodgy unrestored (i.e. falling apart) sections. Well, there are way too many tourists at Badaling (restored section)! If you take a picture, you get more people than wall! Jinshaling & Simatai are about 180kms from Beijing so don’t get as much tourist traffic.

Ok…good idea? Well maybe it didn’t seem so at the start (Steve’s internal monologue as we started off from Jinshanling and hit the first set of steps “big mistake steve, big mistake…”). We were followed for a bit by a couple of ladies who wanted to guide us (all though they pretended at the start that they didn’t) but we figured “it’s the Great Wall of China…we follow it…can’t really get too lost”. That being said, we did head off in the wrong direction (for all of you who may follow in these footsteps…it’s a left turn at the top of the stairs when you get up the hill to the wall, not right!) We just said to them (many more times than once) ‘bu hao’ (I don’t want it), ’shie shie’ (thank you) and ‘dsai jian’ (goodbye). They followed for about 4 watch towers and then kinda gave up just as Steve started to lose his temper. There are a few peddlers along the wall selling postcards and bottles of drink but other than the ladies who were intent on guiding us, no-one else really pushed a hard sell. There was one little old man who was walking along the wall collecting bits of rubbish hikers left behind. I wanted to give him money just for doing that even though he didn’t ask for anything. Hiker code: Take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints behind!

The steep parts are brutal, especially the ones with the 2 foot high steps that you have to use your hands to keep going up. 25-ish watch towers from start to finish, so keep count and by about 12 or 13, you’re halfway. If you are reasonably fit, you should be able to get to Simatai without dissolving into tears. Expect to pay 30 RMB at Jinshanling to enter the area, pay 30RMB more at the Simatai border and then expect another cheeky 5RMB to cross a suspension bridge just before getting to Simatai as there isn’t another real option of getting over the reservoir. There was a dirt track around the bottom we could have tried to follow but for a 5RMB saving…it’s not worth it. It all goes towards conserving the wall so it’s a good thing.

The last set of stairs after the suspension bridge walking up to the road down to the Simatai carpark are just taking the piss. So steep…that was nearly time for tears! If you are a super trekker, you can continue along the wall past the Simatai entrance and climb a completely INSANELY steep section for 14 more watch towers after which you have to turn back the way you came as the wall degrades too badly. But that really is heart attack territory…well at least it is if you’ve just hiked from Jinshanling! We made pretty good time and did it in 3.5 hours. At Simatai we contemplated the further 14 watch towers and happily turned our backs and walked very slowly down to the car park!!!