The Great Wall, not version 2.0

I must confess that after nearly four years in China I’ve ushered many, many houseguests to the Great Wall. But I’ve always been to one of two places: Either Badaling, the most visited site near Beijing, where the wall is perfectly reconstructed, or Mutianyu, a bit further away. I like Mutianyu because there is a cable car ride to the top, and a toboggan run down. The vendors are a bit aggressive, though.

But yesterday, while we were visiting friends at a summer house near the rural town of Huairou, we had the chance to climb an un-rebuilt area of the Great Wall.

Many China-based readers have probably already done this. I never had. Well, I regret it now. It was really, really beautiful. I can’t give you a good description of how to get there because it involved numerous unmarked back roads.

I can only say that if in Beijing, try to get to an untrammeled section of the Wall.