Review: Qinglongxia Great Wall review

[Bryan]

Summary

Qinglongxia is a nice place to combine a casual visit to the Wild Great Wall with other activities.

Qinglongxia is the name of a gorge and resort area located just north of a village called Dashuiyu. For this reason, the Great Wall here is sometimes called the Qinglongxia Great Wall and sometimes called the Dashuiyu Great Wall.

Access

Qinglongxia is conveniently located just north of the Huairou urban area. Drive north past Yanqi lake and after you pass the lake on the left, you will see signs on the right directing you to Qinglongxia. It’s just a few minutes off the main road and easy to find.

Condition

The wall on the east side was badly deteriorated and difficult to follow until it was partially repaired in 2009-2010. The wall on the west side is in good shape for the most part and some minor repair work was done on this side as well during 2009-2010. The towers especially are surprisingly intact and in most places the wall is relatively easy to follow although it is crumbling and somewhat overgrown in many places.

Description

Qinglongxia is a Beijing area resort with many activities in addition to the Great Wall. There are a few hotels in the area and several places to eat. Qinglongxia is popular with both Beijing residents and tourists.

Upon entering Qinglongxia, you will purchase tickets and go through a ticket gate. You will immediately be greeted by a spectacular view of the Great Wall heading up a steep mountain on the east side of the valley, to your right. The Great Wall extends east here for only a short distance (about one kilometer). After this, the wall ends and there are only sporadic towers for a long distance, until you reach the Wangzhuang area just west of the Miyun reservoir. The wall on the east side is made mostly of brick, with some stone parts. Just before you reach the point where the wall nears the road, there is a restaurant on a hill on your right side. Around this restaurant to its left (north) side, you will find a trail that will lead you to the wall. It’s not too difficult to follow the wall past a couple of towers to the point where it stops. There is then a gap to the next tower, where the wall begins again for a short span before stopping again. Beyond this point, there are several more freestanding towers. But the spans where no wall exist are difficult to pass due to heavy vegetation in the area.

If you walk northward down the valley from the entrance to Qinglongxia, along the river, and past this eastbound Great Wall, you will soon see Great Wall towers high up on the mountain ridge to your left (to the west). Keep walking and you will come to a bridge across the river on your left, which you will want to cross. At the end of this bridge is a hotel that I stayed in which was quite pleasant and also offered good food. From roads behind and to the right of this hotel, it’s easy to access the Great Wall as there are two marked and well-maintained paths to the west side. The first one is longer and the second one is shorter but steeper and includes several long metal staircases. There is also an open, ski-lift type cable car which takes you to the high point on the west side, near the top of the second path but at a location higher up and further to the northwest. The scenery at this point is excellent in every direction.

From the top of the both paths as well as the top cable car station, you can follow the Great Wall in either direction, east or west. If you pass the top cable car station and proceed west along the Great Wall towards Hefangkou, you will soon encounter a robust barbed-wire fence and the area is protected by security cameras as well as a number of warning signs. It is possible but not easy to get around the fence because the terrain is quite steep. Therefore, Qinglongxia is not the place to go if you’re planning on a long continuous Great Wall hike. In the other direction, you can only go a limited distance to the east before you reach another fence that indicates the end of the public section. To reach the wall on the other side of this fence, you should look for a path from the road leading to the entrance of Qinglongxia, about 780 meters (0.5 miles) before you reach the ticket gate. This path leads north up to the closed, lower part of the western Qinglongxia Great Wall. Even though it’s officially closed, this part of the wall has been repaired and is not difficult to climb.

The east side as it appears from the entrance area


Towers high above the ground on the west side


Passage to Hefangkou blocked

[chinoook]

Wow!

With your recommendation I some day will convert to a brick-and-rock apologistt!

Thx for that thread,


-chinoook

[nightofadrenalin]

Bryan I think that the Towers high above the ground on the west side
Pic is stunning. Very nice with the mist and the lone boatman and the majestic Wall on the background. Thank you for this pic again . It really made me happy .

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by nightofadrenalin

Bryan I think that the Towers high above the ground on the west side
Pic is stunning. Very nice with the mist and the lone boatman and the majestic Wall on the background. Thank you for this pic again . It really made me happy .

Thank you very much. Sometimes I get lucky.