Hiking the Great Wall of China, the wild and free way

We’re in Huairou, a rural district in the mountainous outlying regions of Beijing. It’s here, a two- or three-hour drive from downtown, that you’ll find some of the most spectacular sections of the Great Wall.

For hikers across Beijing, the Great Wall is as functional as it is legendary. Thick, dry shrub covers the mountains here, and a trail with a view is a rare find. In contrast, the Great Wall is an elevated highway, although sometimes a disintegrating one. When the Freedom Team comes to the occasional cliff or eroded section, the hikers start bickering over whether to go up or maneuver around it. At some point, an impatient member inevitably breaks the impasse and starts climbing. From below, the rest of the hikers turn into a judgmental peanut gallery.

Unlike heavily trafficked tourist sections that construction crews have refinished to resemble Disney World, wild walls remain basically untouched — some of them since the Ming Dynasty (14th to 17th centuries). They also don’t have entrance fees.

We are hiking a wild section just east of Jiankou known as Beijing Jie, or Beijing Link, where the wall divides into two sections, running parallel west toward the Gobi Desert. There’s a common misconception that the Great Wall is a single continuous structure, but this split is one of many.

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