Performing on The Great Wall of China
I’ve now been living in Beijing, China for 5 months and my buddy Johnny decides to visit me from Las Vegas for a week so of course I have to take him to the Great Wall. I’ve had other friends come and visit during the summer months, which because of the heat I didn’t want to bring my guitar. But the temperature was a nice 60 degrees and was perfect walking around weather with a light sweat shirt. Getting a driver was easy talking to concierge the night before and said it would cost 1000 RMB ($140 ) and we would be picked up at 9 am.
The next morning our driver is waiting for us in a nice leather car, and we start the drive outside of Beijing. There are actually a few different locations to visit The Great Wall of China, and I’ve actually been to a few but I would say Mutianyu is my favorite spot. Bataling is the most touristy, and has the most amount of people. Jinshan is farther away and is also a one way walk that is about a 8Km trek which takes a few more hours. So Mutianyu we went. It’s about an hour and a half drive (depending on traffic) and you arrive to a nice building where you can buy entrance tickets, bus ticket, and tickets for the cable car. You can hike up to the top, but we chose the cable car, which probably 99% of the people do.
So after a short walk through a touristy selling area with shops, restaurants (I kid you not a burger king is there), you arrive at the shuttle bus and it will take you to the landing area where you will actually enter Mutianyu. Then a short distance away, although very steep, is the entrance to the cable car. And it’s actually a really cool cable car experience. There is a great vantage point of the Great Wall as the car lifts you up. After landing and a 10 minute walk you are on the wall. From here you can walk left or right but really each way has really nice views. Whichever way you go you will need to come back to this location for the cable car. so we only went about 2Km to the right, because I was carry my guitar and some other gear to film this video, but you can go much further although at some point each side is blocked off to tourists eventually.
