{"id":4446,"date":"2011-12-16T18:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T23:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=4446"},"modified":"2011-12-16T11:17:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T16:17:07","slug":"goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"Goldilocks and the Three Great Walls (\u957f\u57ce)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/img_0872-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4516\" aria-label=\"IMG 08721 150x150\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4516\"  alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/IMG_08721-150x150.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now that we&#8217;ve covered some Great Wall attractions and locations, lets compare and contrast the three most popular greater-Beijing Great Wall locations to find the Great Wall trip that is right for you. We&#8217;ll be covering three very different sections of the wall, including:<\/p>\n<p>1) Simatai (\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0),\u00a02) Badaling (\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad) and\u00a03)\u00a0Mutianyu (\u6155\u7530\u5cea).<\/p>\n<p>The following is a brief summary highlighting the pros and cons of each Great Wall location to help you decide on which section of the Great Wall to visit next.\u00a0Check out the short one minute Great Wall video mash-up below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Great Wall Mash-up\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zZuNk65KNF8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Simatai (\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Simatai\u00a0or\u00a0\u00a0\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0 (<em>S\u012bm\u01cet\u00e1i<\/em>) section of the\u00a0Great Wall is located just north of\u00a0Miyun County, (about 120\u00a0km northeast of\u00a0Beijing), and holds the access to\u00a0Gubeikou, a strategic pass in the eastern part of the Great Wall. Originally built during the\u00a0Northern Qi dynasty and rebuilt in the Hongwu years of the\u00a0Ming dynasty by\u00a0Qi Jiguang, this section of Great Wall is one of the few to retain the original features of the Ming dynasty Great Wall.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/img_0894-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4480\" aria-label=\"IMG 08941 300x225\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4480\"  alt=\"The Simatai Great Wall (\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/IMG_08941-300x225.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Simatai Great Wall spans some 5.4\u00a0km long and is connected by 35 beacon towers. The Simatai Wall is unique because it incorporates the different characteristics of each section of the Great Wall into one locale. A specialist on the Great Wall, Professor Luo Zhewen, has said \u00a0that &#8220;The [Simatai] Great Wall is the best of the Chinese buildings, and Simatai is the best of the Great Wall&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Simatai is the least crowded of the walls I&#8217;ve visited, located in a vastly more picturesque and remote area than Badaling or Mutianyu. That being said, it&#8217;s quite a pain to get to, requiring renting or owning a private car. It&#8217;s in the middle of nowhere, a notion that is both liberating and unheard of in the crowded mainland. If you want to traverse the great wall uninterrupted by \u00a0throngs of loud tourists, this is your Great Wall, but don&#8217;t expect to find anyone willing to take your picture with the wall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/simatai-great-wall-in-january\uff08\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0\u957f\u57ce\uff09\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for full post on Simatai Great Wall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Badaling (\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Badaling or\u00a0\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad (<em>B\u0101d\u00e1l\u01d0ng<\/em>) is the most visited section of the\u00a0Great Wall of China, located approximately 50\u00a0miles (80\u00a0km) northwest of Beijing proper in\u00a0Yanqing County. The section of the wall was built during the\u00a0Ming Dynasty, along with a military\u00a0outpost reflecting the location&#8217;s strategic importance. The highest point of Badaling is Beibalou, which is approximately 1000 meters above sea level.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4509\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/img_0050-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4509\" aria-label=\"IMG 00502 300x225\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4509\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4509\"  alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/IMG_00502-300x225.jpg\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A congested section of the Badaling wall (\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to be openned to tourists. Visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car. The recently completed\u00a0Badaling Expressway connects Badaling with central Beijing.\u00a0Line S2, Beijing Suburban Railway, serves people who wanted to go to the Great Wall from\u00a0Beijing North Railway Station. Tickets are available at Beijing North Railway Station to Badaling Station. A bus also runs frequently from\u00a0Deshengmen to Badaling.<\/p>\n<p>Badaling is notorious for being crowded, congested and polluted. It is one of Beijing&#8217;s largest &#8220;tourist traps&#8221; and depending upon what time of day and year you visit, may be swarming with Chinese and foreign sights-seers. \u00a0While it&#8217;s easy to get to, the long lines and lack of scenery are not work it in this person&#8217;s opinion. Imagine using a stair-stepper for three hours with 10,000 other people in 95 degree weather. That&#8217;s Badaling in a nutshell.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/badaling-great-wall-%E5%85%AB%E8%BE%BE%E5%B2%AD%E9%95%BF%E5%9F%8E\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for previous post on the Badaling Great Wall (\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad\u957f\u57ce).<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Mutianyu (\u6155\u7530\u5cea):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Mutianyu\u00a0or\u00a0\u6155\u7530\u5cea\u00a0\u00a0(<em>M\u00f9ti\u00e1ny\u00f9<\/em>) section of the\u00a0Great Wall of China\u00a0is located in Huairou County, 70km northeast of\u00a0Beijing. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is connected with\u00a0Jiankou in the west and\u00a0Lianhuachi in the east. As one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4482\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/n13301312_33459524_7065212\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4482\" aria-label=\"N13301312 33459524 7065212 300x199\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4482\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4482\"  alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/n13301312_33459524_7065212-300x199.jpg\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4482\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mutianyu (\u6155\u7530\u5cea) section of the Great Wall<\/p><\/div>\n<p>First built in the mid-6th century during the\u00a0Northern Qi, Mutianyu Great Wall is older than the\u00a0Badaling section of the Great Wall. Later, in 1569, the Mutianyu Great Wall was rebuilt and restored. Today most parts of the 1569 restoration remain and are still well preserved. As a result, the Mutianyu Great Wall is considered the strongest and most durable sections of Great Wall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/n13301312_33459528_5690757\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4527\" aria-label=\"N13301312 33459528 5690757 150x150\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4527\"  alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/n13301312_33459528_5690757-150x150.jpg\"><\/a>I consider Mutianyu the &#8220;goldilocks&#8221; of the Beijing area Great Wall sections&#8211;it&#8217;s not too crowded and not too remote. Mutianyu does have more scenic vistas than Badaling, but still has its fair share of tourism, including many restaurants, bars and shops . It does however, have a beautiful lake cutting through its valleys and a zip line that allows you to fly over and and take in the sights from a birds-eye view.<\/p>\n<p>Mutianyu is a solid choice for your first visit to the Great Wall, blending an equal amount of nature and tranquility with entertainment and fun. I&#8217;ve been multiple times and still enjoy zipping over the reservoir with a camera in hand.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/from-jiankou-great-wall-to-mutianyu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for a video post by Sasha on Mutianyu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow Steve on twitter: @seeitbelieveit<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"327\" height=\"215\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/05\/n13301312_33459528_5690757.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Now that we&#8217;ve covered some Great Wall attractions and locations, lets compare and contrast the three most popular greater-Beijing Great Wall locations to find the Great Wall trip that is right for you. We&#8217;ll be covering three very different sections of the wall, including: 1) Simatai (\u53f8\u9a6c\u53f0),\u00a02) Badaling (\u516b\u8fbe\u5cad) and\u00a03)\u00a0Mutianyu (\u6155\u7530\u5cea). The following is a&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/goldilocks-and-the-three-great-walls\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":4527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36290,36287,36288,36291,36292,36293,36289,13258],"class_list":["post-4446","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-badaling","tag-great-wall-of-china","tag-mutianyu","tag-simatai","tag-36292","tag-36293","tag-36289","tag-13258"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4446"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6927,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions\/6927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}