The Great Wall

This is a Great Wall and only a great people with a great past could have a Great Wall and such a great people with such a Great Wall will surely have a great future.               Richard M. Nixon

    There are plenty of scenic spots and places of interest scattered in the plains and hills around Beijing, and no visits would be complete without a trip to the Great Wall, accessible in three places (Badaling Great Wall, Jinshanling Great Wall, Mutianyu Great Wall) within easy journey time of Beijing.

    Stretching 6000Km in a dotted line across China, the Great Wall was begun in the fifth century BC and was still being built up to the sixteenth century. Today's surviving sections, placed end to end, would link New York with Los Angeles, and if the bricks used to build it were made into a single wall 5m high and 1m thick it would more than encircle the earth. Even at ground level, and along the small, most-visited section at Badaling Great Wall, constantly overrun by Chinese and Foreign tourists,  is clearly the PRC's most spectacular sight.

    Even after you dispense with the myths that it is a single continuous structure and that it can be seen from space, China's best-known attraction is still a mind-boggling achievement. The Great Wall begins at Shanhaiguan on the BoHai (sea) and snakes west to a fort at Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert.

Attractions of Beijing Travel