Best Tour To The Great Wall For Pics

We will be on the Oceania Nautica in March 2006 and would like to know if anyone knows which part or the Great Wall is best for great scenic pictures.

Did anyone have a great private tour guide?

Thanks for the help,

John

any part of the great wall is great for pictures....

There's really only 3 or 4 parts of the Great Wall that are open to the public with facilities, etc.

The most visited section of the Great Wall is Badaling. It's also the closest section to Beijing.

I was at Badaling this past March. The wall is pretty busy, but not as busy as it would be during October or on national holidays. The only problem with taking pictures of the Great Wall in March is that the country is just coming out of winter. When I went there was still a small bit of snow on the ground. Therefore the pictures of the wall that I took look great. But the landscape is barren and brown. No color to the trees, no leaves, etc. So landscape pictures don't look particularly nice.

If you want to go to the Wall at any of the other sections such as Mutianyu, they are further from Beijing and therefore require longer travel time. Also public transportation out to other sections of the wall is quite limited unless you hire a taxi driver for the day or something of that sort.

Hi, we were in China two years ago. We enjoyed the Mutianyu section of the wall. Even though it is a little further away than Badaling, the road is easy to travel (we hired a driver with a very comfortable sedan for 1/2 day to take us to the Wall). Worth every penny because his car was very clean and he was safe driver. The Mutianyu section is a little less rundown, definitely less tourist than Badaling, but very picturesque. They have a cable car lift that will pull you most of the way up and you just climb a few steps to get to the top. The sentry posts along this section of the wall were fairly close so you can take great pictures of the wall with the curving wall and sentry post in the background.

The steps are steep at Badaling. Plus, they have lots of hawkers selling t-shirts and junk along the Wall (sort of sad). The vendors at Mutianyu are along the base of the Wall near the exit of the cable car or along the steps leading to the cable car. No one to bother you while you are experiencing the majestic views of the Wall at Mutianyu. It is clean and so beautiful early in the morning at Mutianyu (we got there around 9:10am).

Have a good time.

Thanks for the info on Mutianyu. About how long is the drive. Is it diffucult to hire a driver that speaks english while there or should we find a tour company to get us one?

We had hired our driver through our hotel tour desk. I believe the drive was around 2 hours. We were picked up pretty early because I wanted to get there as soon as the cable cars opened (9:00am). I had read that early morning is the best because a lot less tourist and vendors to hassle you. Boy, it was fantastic to be one of the few on top of the wall. It was a little nippy because we were there mid-November. (thank goodness for the new Northface Jacket and Gore-tex gloves from a stall in China).

We had the wall to ourselves for about 20 minutes. My 3 year old son was climbing up and down the steps (big steps, those sentry guards thousands of years ago must have been very tall) and running around inside the protected sentry post (like a little maze of 3 or 4 rooms).

We chose to not hire an English-speaking guide because we would have to pay for a bigger car since the comfortable 4 door sedan only fitted 3 + 1 small child and the driver. The guide would have been a tight fit. Although while on the wall, we saw a couple of other tourist with English guide. The tour desk could have easily provide us with a driver and guide for a higher price.

We don't speak Mandarin even though we are Chinese (only speak cantonese). Instead, we had to use mime to convey our needs to the driver. We had only hired him to take us to see the Mutianyu section and drive us back to the city and drop us off at the Forbidden City.

We had a great time exploring on our own. It felt weird to see everyone look like us but we were 100% Americanized and couldn't communicate through language with the people in Beijing. My husband and I still laugh about how we had to look for restaurants that had English menus or pictures of dishes taped to the restaurant walls/windows so we can order our food.

Another fun thing to do is have peking duck at this famous restaurant near the Forbidden City. Called Qianmen Quanjude Restaurant on 32 Qianmen Dajie. Their specialty was the peking duck and the chef slices the duck in front of you on a table and it is served on a nice platter and the rest of the duck meat is combined to make another dish. Then you are presented with a certificate indicating that you were served duck number _______ from this restaurant. I guess all their ducks are numbered here! The waitresses speak English and you can request an English menu. This is a fancy restaurant so don't expect food stall prices.

Have a wonderful time and you can ask more questions.

Cynthia

we've just returned home from two weeks in china and I can highly recommend

Mr. Li (robinson Li) I found his name on a different website and lots of people had used him and recommended him. he is very reasonably priced and speaks perfect english. he also has a website- www.beijingtaxi.com. He took us out to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and it was trul awesome. We didn't go to Badaling because it is apparently very crowded. He will also recommend different shows and restaurants and he is very trustworthy. You will have a great time in China - it is very facinating.

Email: robinsonlitour@hotmail.com

Hi,

We also bypassed the Badaling section of the wall last week because it is polluted with tourists and vendors and were very glad we did. Mutianyu is about a 2 hour drive from south of the city centre and you get a chance to see some countryside on the way which is lush and beautiful.For older folks, it also offers a skytrain ride to the wall and guard towers close to where you exit so that the wall can be explored easier. There were very few people on the wall and the beautiful surrounding scenery made for great picture taking. There were plenty of vendors there too but none, thankfully, on the wall.

Cheers,

Andy

There is little need to have a tour of GW. We rented a van with driver that accommodated 12 with stop off at Summer palace for 1200 RMB or about $15 US per person. There are a number of car rental companies but we used Robert. They all have competitive prices. Do not look up tour companies, car rental companies instead. Robert didn't even require a deposit. The drivers do not speak english so you would need to have any communicarions written down in Chinese. Their dispatcher, Benny, speaks excellent english and will instruct the driver of your wishes. We usedHthem to take us to Temple of Heaven and on to the Bullet train to Tangu(the closest station to Tainjin port). They sent an Audi and for three hours we paid 200 RMB. Saved us a lot of time and hassle. It worked out great because we checked out of the hotel went on a tour, left our bags in the car. The driver returned and took us to the train. Excellent use of time with no hassle!!!

Marty

I would avoid Badaling as you won't get any pictures without people in them unless you hike a good way out of the city. Depending on where you are staying and given traffic it isn't necessarily that much closer than some of other sites.

Actually one spot closer that Badaling is Juyongguan. You will pass this site 10-15 minutes before getting to Badaling.

Mutianyu is also overrun with tourists. Nearby Jiankou is very scenic and quieter. It also has some unrestored sections which are nice to see.

Don't assume busier is better. Chinese domestic tourists (the vast majority of tourists at any site in China) want to go to the famous sights (to say they were there and get pictures) of either Badaling (first to be rebuilt) or to a lesser extent Mutianyu and this is the main reason they are much busier than the other locations which are just as nice.

There is little need to have a tour of GW. We rented a van with driver that accommodated 12 with stop off at Summer palace for 1200 RMB or about $15 US per person. There are a number of car rental companies but we used Robert. They all have competitive prices. Do not look up tour companies, car rental companies instead. Robert didn't even require a deposit. The drivers do not speak english so you would need to have any communicarions written down in Chinese. Their dispatcher, Benny, speaks excellent english and will instruct the driver of your wishes. We usedHthem to take us to Temple of Heaven and on to the Bullet train to Tangu(the closest station to Tainjin port). They sent an Audi and for three hours we paid 200 RMB. Saved us a lot of time and hassle. It worked out great because we checked out of the hotel went on a tour, left our bags in the car. The driver returned and took us to the train. Excellent use of time with no hassle!!!

Marty

Marty - hope you see this as I read your very helpful post on visiting GW. I like your suggestion about not hiring a tour company, but rather a driver and car instead. Would you mind emailing me the contact information to this Robert you mentioned? My email addy is jmajifu at gmail dot com. Many thanks!

There is no need to join a tour. You just need transportation to get there.

There are many places to see the Great Wall (a lot more than 2-3 or 4 as said above). Here is a copy of my response on another thread on a similar question:

Badaling is the most crowded as it is closest to Beijing and easy to reach by bus. It only takes one hour by public bus. It is also the cheapest way to see the Wall. Close and cheap means busy. See this video:

Next is Mutianyu which not as easy to get to by public transportation and is 1.5 hours away. Not as busy but getting more busy than before. A cable car can take you to the top. Less tiring than walking up.

These days, for less people and a good experience, I would go to Huanghuacheng

You will need to hire a driver to go to places other than Badaling. cost is 600RMB plus or minus 100. Drivers can be found here: http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds/cars-drivers

Did a tour to China last Oct. and the weather was great(80's). Went to the Wall at I believe Badaling. A couple of things I noticed:

I thought the wall was a flat walk but was surprised by the number of stairs to climb.

The same souvenirs were more expensive after entering the admission gate than at the stores outside the gate.

The souvenirs are of poor quality, such as the hats and shirts.Like our guide told us:Don't buy the shirts. After washing first time you give it to wife,after second washing you give it to child,after third you give it to dog!!!

Enjoy China. It is a fascinating country. Am already making plans to go back!