Mutianyu is one frequently visited part of the Great Wall of China. Mutianyu is about 1½ to 2 hours’ drive from central Beijing and hence a favourite for a day trip for tourists.
The climb at Mutianyu is not difficult but for this trip, I also explored an un-opened part of the Great Wall called watch tower 1. I will cover that in another blog post.
Although the Great Wall of China is so long, there are only so many parts that are open to visitors. Restoration is necessary to make it safe for visitors. Some sections nearby to Beijing are open such as Mutianyu, Jiankou, Jinshanling etc. And in fact, you can hike from one section to another in couple of non stop walking for hours. For example, you can hike from Jiankou to Mutianyu or Jinshanling to Simatai. One day, I will do one of these.
When you reached Mutianyu, you are at the foot of the mountain range (in which the Great Wall of China sits). Yes, the amazing Great Wall of China is not sitting on a flat plain and the wall just go up on it. At least, not at Mutianyu area.
Somehow, the Emperor of China made his people bring up tons and tons of stones to the mountain and with no modern machinery, built an amazing man made structure. Amazing.
So you need to go up to the top of the mountain range to visit the Great Wall. To do that, you can either take the cable car or the ropeway to go up. And then to come back down to the foot, you can take the toboggan.
This is best explained in this article.
Notice that you can start from the same place at the foot but when taking the cable car up, it lands you at watch tower 14. By taking the ropeway up, it lands you at Tower 6. Which is much near to the place where you can take toboggan down. So the ropeway is an easier way.
Watch tower 14 to watch tower 6 is a pretty long walk. This is THE Great Wall of China :).
At the foot of the mountain, you can buy the tickets for the ropeway (up) and then the toboggan (down) at 120 RMB. Please keep the tickets carefully. You need to use it for BOTH trips. Don’t lose it.
So you go to this building to start the ropeway trip up.
The ropeway up !!
Enjoy the view on your way up. It is not a scary ride.
You can also catch a preview of your upcoming Toboggan ride. Wow. I did not know that it was over a bridge at one stage. It certainly did not feel that way when you are riding it down.
At the top, you are at one of the most amazing man made structure in the world.
I will show more photos and videos of the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu, including the un-restored part that I hiked on. Watch out for it.
At round the same place where your ropeway ended, is also where you can take the toboggan back down. Show the person your ticket you bought at the foot of the mountain.
I took a video of the toboggan ride down. It is about five mins long.
Enjoy 😉
You should really try the toboggan ride when you are at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. Or you can also enjoy the other amazing man made structure in Beijing, which was all know as the Forbidden City.
China is a most amazing place to visit.
