In the midst of rainy, humid and cloudy beijing there appeared a beauuuutiful day. The sky was clear and together with some young american professionals we went hiking on the wall. Our favorite farmers even surprised us with a delicious meal. Plate after plate filled with pancakes fish, chicken, noodles, vegetables….arrived at our table.

A short hike trough the high corn brought us to wall. We hike for couple kilometers on the wall, took some welcoming shadow brakes in the watchtowers and admired the beautiful scenery.

Hike the Great Wall

As heidi and I stayed a bit in a watchtower our american friends gave it their best and hiked a couple more kms on the to get the best out of their day. An easy hike down trough fields and farm villages brought us back to main road where our driver showed up the second we arrived. yeah I love it when things go smooth. Thank you for this beautiful day guys. I really enjoyed today’s talks. Good luck with the rest of your trip.

Fred & Heidi

Sometimes people ask “me how many times we have been to this part of the great wall?” I honestly have to answer that I lost count. Than they ask me “don’t you get bored than?” My answer is always “absolutely not” This part of the great wall is just to beautiful to become boring. The surroundings change color every month, the people we guide change every time and sky we walk under every day. On this great wall camping trip the they sky was filled with fog and gave the scenery a very surreal feeling, specially in the evening when I was sitting a bit by myself in the evening watching the great wall disappearing in the fog.  Well just have a look at the picture below… would you ever get bored?

As usual Panglonshan never fails to amaze our guests. The name Panglonshan is Chinese for laying dragon. This part of the Gubeikou Great wall has one of the most beautiful never ending winding stretches of great wall around Beijing. So it needs only a little fantasy to see it as a huge dragon laying curled up on the mountain ridges.

After a a few hours relaxed hiking on this dragon’s back we headed back to farmer house. Just in time. The humidity that was hanging in the air transformed in big shower rain the moment we stepped into the farm.
A nice local meal, a few beers and a game of poker with our spanish friends made this a very nice day.

Hope to see you again guys!

The winding dragon Great Wall is stil one of the most beautiful places for a 1 day great wall hike. Together with the Jewel family we visited this wild great wall. As usual we started with a good lunch with our favourite farmer family. Friendly as ever they spoiled us with a variety of vegetables dishes, chicken, pork,tofu, corn pancakes, tea and beer. Nothing tastes better than a home grown and cooked meal! Altough we felt more like taking a nap than going hiking after this meal we started hiking up the wall when the sun was at it’s highest.

The sky was clear so we were spoiled with a view of the winding great wall as far as the eye could reach. During summer the mountains surrounding this wall turn in to a lush green carpet making the scenery even more beautiful. Standing on one of the watchtowers I was wondering why people keep going to those tourist places and leave the most beautiful part for their imagination… My second thought was, please keep going there so we can keep walking here for a whole day without seeing a single soul! We didn’t rush on this hike but took our time to sit down and take in all the historical and natural beauty this places offers us.

After about 6 km hiking on the wall the explorer in us woke up again and we start hiking down the mountain trying to find a new route to turn this hike into a nice loop. All went as smooth as one can hope. some advise from the local farmers set us straight to the main road where we only had to wait a few minutes before our driver showed up.

It was another great hiking day with great people. Thanks for the great day guys! Hope to see you again one day in China, Belgium or California!
Fred & Heidi

The summer rain has arrived in Beijing and in no time the landscape surrounding the mountains carrying the Great
wall changed dramatically. The dry yellow mountains made place for a lush green landscape.

We made or way trough the farm fields where the first corn started coming up. A short climb and we reached the Yuan Dynasty Great Wall. This 1000 year old wall is just made of earth. 500 years later, during the Ming Dynasty, this wall was fortified with bricks. As we continued or hike the Winding Dragon Great Wall became bigger and bigger and half an hour later we could see the farm where we had lunch far beneath us.

During our walk on the Great Wall we found some old pottery and and saw salamanders hunting for ants that where hiding under some of the Ming Dynasty roof tiles. The Dandelion where dancing with the wind throwing their seeds over bypassing caterpillars and grasshoppers. Life is definitely different on the mountains around Beijing than in the city.

Hiking in Beijing

Visiting the Great Wall is a must when you re in Beijing and hiking on top of it a great experience. But while you’re there…don’t rush. Go and sit on top of one of the watch towers watch the amazing scenery and all the small life it hosts. It will give you without a doubt a very special feeling.