Review: Xishuiyu Great Wall review

[Bryan]

Summary

The Xishuiyu Great Wall combines spectacular views of the Great Wall, access to the real Wild Great Wall, and a beautiful scenic environment.

Access

Xishuiyu is located at Xiaoxihu lake to the west of the Huanghuacheng Great Wall. You can follow the route from Huairou to Huanghuacheng and, instead of turning right (north) to Huanghuacheng, continue straight (west) and follow the signs to Xishuiyu.

Condition

Most of the Great Wall around Xishuiyu is in reasonably good, deteriorated but not collapsed condition. None of the Great Wall here has been restored so it retains its authentic condition.

Description

The Xishuiyu Great Wall is a popular tourist resort. It connects with Zhuangdaokou and Erdaoguan in the east and Longquanyu in the west. There are many hotels, farm houses, and restaurants here as well as activities like boat rides and scenic walkways. But the main attraction for readers of this forum is of course the Great Wall. There are many places where you can see the Great Wall here, and the views are impressive with high mountains and water all around. But if you are looking for a way to reach the Wall you may be a bit perplexed because it appears to be up on top of mountains and basically unapproachable. You have only a few choices of how to reach the Wall. Upon entering the main gate into the park, there is a path off to the right that goes up to a high point on the Wall, but it is protected by a fence and signs warning people to keep out. There were paths going around this fence but I did not try to follow them. If you can get onto the Wall here, you can follow it to the east over some very steep mountains to Erdaoguan.

Instead, I chose to seek the Great Wall where it leads off to the west towards Longquanyu. The map below, which shows the Great Wall in red and the path in black, and the following description, illustrates this.

The main entrance to Xishuiyu is at the lower right (southeast) corner of the map. The bus to and from Huairou arrives and departs at A. There is a good convenience store at B. At C is the hotel where I stayed. It’s one of the nicer hotels around, but there are several from which to choose. At D is the ticket gate and park entrance. Take the leftmost path after the entrance, cross over a bridge over the river, and continue following this path up the hill. It will curve around sharply to the right, and at this point (E on the map) there is another, smaller path off to the left. Follow this path off to the left and soon you will come through a gap in the Wall at F on the map. Here you will not be able to safely climb up onto the Wall but you can walk alongside it in either direction and look for a way to get up onto it. If you go to the right (north), you can follow the Wall for a decent distance before it abruptly stops on the edge of a steep hill above the dam. If you go to the left (south), the Wall simply curves around and rejoins the path. Continue straight and you will again cross the Wall at a point where it’s barely noticeable unless you look for it. You can follow the wall to the right (northwest) here, but it is pretty steep and overgrown and soon ends at the water’s edge where you would have to turn around and come back. Continue along the path and you will see a tower atop a hill on the right side. Once you have passed this hill you will reach point H on the map where there is a trail off to the right. Follow this path down to the valley. It’s steep and sometimes a little bit hard to locate. Cross the stream on some rocks at I on the map. Following the trail back up the other side of the valley you will reach the Great Wall at J on the map. You can get up onto the Wall here, but at this point you can only go to the right (east) up to one high tower and then down to the reservoir. Heading left (west) you will soon find a tower that has been blocked off to prevent access. You must therefore find your way through the thick woods and at K on the map you will find a pile of bricks that you can use to climb up onto the Wall. From here, you can hike to the west as far as you want to on the Wall, to Longquanyu and beyond. There are some dangerous sections and there are some places where the Wall is highly overgrown and passage is difficult.

As you follow the Wall to the west here, you will get views of the Xiaoxihu reservoir to your right. You will find several opportunities to get off the wall and walk down the reservoir, crossing through a large Ming dynasty chestnut field at the bottom. There is a path all the way around the reservoir so you can follow it in either direction. You can also follow a path to the west along the valley and stream all the way to Longquanyu.

Note that the image on Google Earth is currently placed about 110 meters (360 feet) too far to the south in this area. If you’re using a GPS and Great Wall paths or other data extracted from Google Earth, beware.