Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The most common tourist activity at the Great Wall is walking a small portion of the Great Wall itself. While there are numerous access points by which people can get up on the wall, most tourists tend to flock to three portions of the wall: Badaling, Mutianyu and Simata. These portions are tourist-dense, but are easier to get to than other portions of the wall which have fewer visitors. Badaling is roughly 40 miles outside of Beijing and is the most popular; besides the crush of people, there are tourist shops, tourist traps and the Great Wall museum. Mutianyu is 50 miles outside of Beijing and is much like Badaling, except that there are more guard towers and better views of the wall. Simatai also has guard towers and good views, but getting to it involves a more arduous hike to get to the Great Wall.
A few companies offer multi-day Great Wall hiking tours which cover longer stretches of the Great Wall than you can access on single day trips. For example, the tours operated by China Hiking Adventures Inc. cover the areas of Badaling, Wutian, Jinshanling, Jiumenkou, Jiashan and Shanhaiguan. The tours also visit Imperial Gardens, tombs, palaces, remote villages, schools and farming communities. In Beijing, the tour goes to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympic complex and other sites. The tours include lodging and meals.
The least common activity at the Great Wall is sleeping on it. Tours operated by The China Guide, however, are designed around actually sleeping on the wall itself. Guests sleep on the wall itself in sleeping bags, with the option of a being in a watchtower or sleeping under the stars; they can also stay in a hotel at the base of the wall. Guides lead hikes at night and in the morning. Guests can also travel by bus around the wall. The guests also visit Ming tombs and the Olympic Stadium. The tour includes meals.