Hike! Expedition on the wall

[cazer]

Hi,

I just had a few questions for you. I am in the process of setting up a expedition to Hike/bike and climb the whole Great wall of China. As part of my research i came across this site. What details can you tell me about Visa's for the whole route? actual start of the wall? where to fly into? camping/roughing the whole route?getting the best maps? Any legal stuff i would need to know.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Phil Carrington

[Bryan]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for joining the Great Wall Forum. It sounds like you are organizing a very interesting expedition!

You don't need any special visas; just a tourist visa with which to enter China.

There are some areas that are forbidden due to military operations and if you try to go through them you can get into some legal trouble, so it's best to circumvent them.

You can't really hike the whole wall, just a selected path from one point to another. Most people choose Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan as the starting and ending points of the Ming dynasty Great Wall. There are many double parallel walls and branches and you won't be able to hike them all (or at least I should say it would be a very formidable goal). The Ming Dynasty Great Wall also continues past Shanhaiguan all the way to Korea in the East.

Our maps section (http://www.greatwallforum.com/forum/...splay.php?f=51) should be a good resource for you. You'll want printed maps and a GPS receiver.

What time frame are you thinking about for starting your expedition? Are you planning to go alone? It would be a pleasure for us to hear more about your plans.

Bryan

[robert_loken]

Originally Posted by greatwallforum

The Ming Dynasty Great Wall also continues past Shanhaiguan all the way to Korea in the East.

Hi,

I have seen the same information in a book written by an English woman in 2005. That the Ming wall continues from Shanhaiguan through a loop to the Northern part of Korea.

However when looking at information on The Great Wall on Wikipedia, it seems that the Ming dynasty wall stops at Shanhaiguan.

Do you know why there is a difference here? Is it perhaps because the fact that the wall continues to Korea is not widely known or accpeted?

Regards,
Robert

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by robert_loken

Hi,

I have seen the same information in a book written by an English woman in 2005. That the Ming wall continues from Shanhaiguan through a loop to the Northern part of Korea.

However when looking at information on The Great Wall on Wikipedia, it seems that the Ming dynasty wall stops at Shanhaiguan.

Do you know why there is a difference here? Is it perhaps because the fact that the wall continues to Korea is not widely known or accpeted?

Regards,
Robert

Hi Robert,

A great question!

The common conception of the Ming Great Wall is "Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan". However, the Wall extends farther both east and west.

The Wall only goes slightly further than Jiayuguan to the west. This has not been disputed, but the Ming Wall extending to the east beyond Shanhaiguan has been disputed in the past. Currently, it's well accepted. In 1992, the Chinese Academy of Ancient Architecture officially confirmed that the wall here is part of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. I have seen many sources including the Bradt Travel Guide to the Great Wall of China by Thammy Evans, The Great Wall: China Against the World by Julia Lovell (likely the book you mentioned), and the January 2003 National Geographic Magazine article by Peter Hessler.

You can see this section in several photo books including some of those by Li Shaobai and in Michael Yamashita's recent book co-written with William Lindesay.

A 1.3-mile section of the Great Wall near Dandong along the Yalu River on the border of China and North Korea was recently rebuilt and opened to tourists.

Here are a few maps.

[robert_loken]

Thank you for very interesting information, and also the maps that show the wall extending from Shanhaiguan.

Do you know how far the wall extends on the Western end? My brother and I visited Shanhaiguan back in '98, and walked Eastwards some days. We heard a rumour that the wall actually started further West, but were not able to pin-point the place.

All the best,
Robert

[Bryan]

The Ming Great Wall goes about 4 miles past Jiayuguan fort to the southwest. Google Earth has very high resolution imagery of this area which is quite interesting to view.

I would be very interested to hear more about your trek and I am sure others would as well. I wonder if you meant you went to the west from Shanhaiguan, or you meant to say you started in Jiayuguan. How far did you get; how was the terrain; was it difficult to follow the Wall; and so forth...

[robert_loken]

Thanks for the information.

We spent five months in China all together. Approximately two of them were spent walking along 7-8 stretches along the great wall. From Jiayuguan in the West till Shanhaiguan in the East. In between we took bus and trains to get to different sections. (Ref your question: We walked Eastwards from Jiayuguan)

I am in the middle of redecorating the place I'm living, so I don't have time or access to enough information to write a meaningful entry on the specifics of our trip. But hopefully within 3-4 weeks I should have better time, and I will write a more coherent entry then. Unfortunately the GPS I ordered back in '98 didn't arrive before we started on the walk, so I don't have any GPS coordinates which is a shame.

Where should I post the entry when I get the time?

[Bryan]

Robert,

Your trip sounds really interesting and you must have had a great time. We will look forward to your post(s) on your adventure very much!

Please start a new thread in either the Extended hiking or the Thru-hiking area.

Good luck with your redecorating project!

Thanks,
Bryan