The Great Wall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the most representative symbol of China. Despite the impressive construction and the attempts of the soldiers to repel the attacks, the wall was crossed by the Mongols in the thirteenth century and later by the Manchus in the seventeenth century. Nowadays most of the wall is in ruins, something that makes it difficult to travel through. Fortunately, some sections have been completely restored to show their original. The thousands of kilometers of the Great Wall of China are divided into several sections and, although all of them are special, each one is adapted to a particular audience.

Badaling

One of the most popular sections of the wall is the restored area known as Badaling. This section, located less than 80 kilometers from Beijing, was the first to open its doors to tourism in 1957 and today continues to receive millions of visitors, being the most saturated area. Badaling has a cable car that facilitates the arrival of visitors to the top of the wall.

Huanghua Cheng

Huanghua Cheng is a section of the wall that is quite crumbling and has a somewhat dangerous profile, but that is undoubtedly the greatest of its charms. A part of the wall is submerged under the surface of the water of a large dam, something that lovers of diving can take advantage of to discover the most mysterious part of the wall.

Mutianyu

There are not too many people, especially compared to Badaling. Obviously, we advise you to avoid weekends and Chinese holidays. It offers numerous services to tourists, such as shops, restaurants, cable car or chairlift. It has the longest restored wall section (more than 2 kms); only 20 minutes on foot connects with different sections of the original wall, still not restored. It probably offers the best preserved section of the Chinese wall. The walls are granite, 6–7 meters high and 4–5 meters long. The section has battlements both outside and inside, almost unique feature in the wall.

Getting to Mutianyu great wall, which is an hour and a half from Beijing, is relatively easy: just take the 916 or 916 Express bus (the ticket costs 12 Yuan, make sure it is the official bus that leaves every 15 minutes.