Hiking The Great Wall

…so the Chinese saying goes. Stretching for 6,000 km (3,750 miles), the Great Wall zigzags its way across China – a true monument to man’s labours.

The Great Wall Challenge is a 9 day event, trekking over watch-towers and battlements, and conquering the 1,000 steps at Mutinayu – which is not for the faint hearted!

In addition, the trek takes us to the Badaling Old Wall section where we will ‘lend a hand’ repairing a watch-tower on the Wall, trekking up the temporary steps and rough terrain to the top where we will each place a new brick – ensuring our little place in the history of the Wall. The trek takes us over parts of the Great Wall well off of the tourist trial, giving an insight into the real China.

An ancient wonder – an amazing accomplishment – all for a good cause.

The itinerary….

• Day 1 – We depart the UK for our overnight flight to Beijing
• Day 2 – We arrive in Beijing, & in the afternoon have a chance to acclimatise and prepare.
• Day 3 – This is a warm up day, with only approx 3hrs of hiking. We trek along the section of the Great Wall which begins at Taipingzhai, and then returns along the Great Wall to Huangyaguan. We stay here overnight at a reconstructed fortress offering very basic accommodation giving us a real feel for the history of the area and the soldiers who lived and protected this highly strategic vantage point.
• Day 4 – We transfer to the beautiful Gubeikou section of the Great Wall & trek to Jinshanling, covering some 27 watch-towers along the way over old brick-made steps. This is a very remote section of the wall and again provides an insight into the immensity of the task undertaken in building the wall. This will be our first full day of hiking -  approx 8 hours!
• Day 5 – We start the day with a short transfer to Jinshanling, and then continue our trek to Simatai. This has to be one of the most remote and beautiful areas we will visit – far from the tourist trail! Hanging precariously onto the Yanshan Mountain, the Simatai Great Wall is known for it’s steepness, ingenuity and uniqueness. Again, a full day of hiking over approx 9 hours.
• Day 6 – Mutianyu – Climb the awesome 1,000 steps and 20 battlements from the foot of the Great Wall to the top of the mountain, culminating with the “Heavenly Ladder” section of this awesome man made Wonder of the World, which will take approx 4-5 hours to climb and covers over 2km of very steep steps! This is our third day in a row with a full 8 hours of hiking!
• Day 7 – The first part of day 7 is spent helping to repair a section of the Great Wall.  New bricks are carried up the 300 wooden steps to where a watchtower is being repaired, where we will be supervised and place new bricks on the Wall. Following this, we then trek the Juyongguan section of the Wall, which was rebuilt in 1988 and gives a clear indication of how the wall looked during it’s formation. This part of the trek is very steep and offers a very real physical test, being by far our biggest hike of the week at up to 9 hours!
• Day 8 – In the morning we trek the Sacred Way then transfer back to Beijing.
• Day 9 – Transfer to airport for flight to UK.

Our target is to raise £6,000 for the Institute of Cancer Research UK.

Keep an eye on the blog to see how our training is going, how much money we have raised an much more!