Great Wall of China - Ba Da Ling Portion 八达岭长城

The third day in Beijing, we visited the Great Wall of China in the morning and the Olympic Sport Center in the evening. Early morning, we took subway line 5 from Dengshikou Station (灯市口站) and changed to line 2 at YongHeGong Lama Temple Station (雍和宫站) to go to the XiZhiMen Station (西直门站). From there, we walked to the Beijing North Railway Station (北京北站)  to catch a train to BaDaLing (八达岭).

Badaling Great Wall

Beijing North Railway Station

Badaling is a mountain located about 70km northwest of Beijing city. The Great Wall of China is built on the ridge of the mountain. Badaling Great Wall (八达岭长城) is the earliest section of the Great Wall of China (万里长城) which opened to visitors in 1957. Most of the existing Great Walls in China nowadays were built during Ming’s Dynasty. It is named the Ming’s Great Wall (明长城). Its total length is about 8851.8 km.

Ming’s Great Wall Total Length

Altitude 616 meters

There are a few ways tourists can travel to Badaling from Beijing city. Travel by train is fastest and most convenience choice. Tourists can take Line S2, Beijing Suburban Railway, from Beijing North Railway Station to Badaling Station. Some tourists might prefer to drive to Badaling for flexible timing. Badaling Expressway connecting Badaling with Beijing city is a good choice for driver. Besides this, there are buses travel to Badaling frequently from Beijing city too. It is very convenience for tourists to travel to Badaling according to their location, timing, and budget.

Route Y567, Platform 5

There are about 6 runs every day from Beijing North Station to YanQing (延庆) which passes by Badaling Station start at 7.26am. The reference route numbers are Y563, Y565, Y567 & Y573 in the morning and Y575 & Y581 in the afternoon. Whereas for the return route, there are 7 runs a day start at 10.13am from Badaling. The reference route numbers are Y570 & Y572 in the morning; Y578, Y580 & Y584 in the afternoon and Y586 & Y588 after 6pm. For more detailed, timing and updated information, you can always visit the official website of China Railway.

Train to Badaling, named “HeXie” (和谐号)

Tourists can buy the train ticket at the Beijing North Railway Station or any of the railway ticket counters around the city. The crowd condition in train station was very bad when I was there that morning. Luckily I got my ticket at one of the ticket counter located at Baishu Hutong (柏树胡同); else I might miss my train at 9.33am that morning. I am not sure about the crowd condition during normal day in Beijing; but I presume that the condition will be bad during peak season especially school holiday. As an advice, get your ticket ready if possible before going to the station.

JuYongGuan Great Wall (view from train)

The journey from Beijing city to Badaling is about an hour plus. On the way, we passed by the JuYongGuan (居庸关), another famous portion of Ming’s Great Wall. Along the journey to Badaling, the train management will have people to walk from seat to seat to sell the entrance ticket for the Great Wall. They have promotion price for purchasing the Great Wall entrance ticket together with the Great Wall Full View Cinema ticket. You might want to get those to avoid long queue at the Great Wall ticket counter.

JuYongGuan Great Wall (view from train)

Badaling Station

The Badaling Station is quite small. It will be crowded during peak season too. You should get your return ticket together when you purchase the depart ticket. Or you might want to get your return ticket at the Badaling Station once you reach the station before going to the attraction. This helps you to plan your time on the Great Wall and surrounding attraction.

QiJiGuang Sculpture

ZhanTianYou Memorial Hall

The Great Wall is located approximately 1km away from the Badaling Station. Turn left after you exit the station and walk along the 216 Provincial Road. You will first pass by a sculpture of QiJiGuang(戚继光) on horse not far away from the station. Then, you will reach the ZhanTianYou Memorial Hall (詹天佑纪念馆) on the left not far after the sculpture. Continue walking, you will see a bus station of the right and a road junction on the left with parking area and rows of restaurants. There are row of shops of hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and more in front of you along the 216 Provincial Road. Walk towards the end of the shops, you find the entrance to the Great Wall of Badaling.

Heritage – Badaling, Great Wall of China

Great Wall Gate Area

The Wall Gate is sitting at the center. The wall extended towards the North and the South. There are about 12 watch towers on each side. More people are climbing the South portion compared to the North portion. Perhaps this due to the scenery at the Southern side is nicer than the North. Anyway, no matter from which side, the Great Wall is really hard to be conquered.

North Portion

South Portion

(3rd tower if not mistaken)

Climbing up to the Great Wall is really hard. My mother and I choose to follow the crowd. We went up to the wall at the Southern side. The watch tower is different from each other, none is the same. Some are big and some are small. Walking path on the wall between two towers is also varying from portion to portion. Some are very steep with stair; some are steep with slope only. Climbers are really required to have a pair of comfortable shoes and a very good stamina for climbing the Great Wall.

Watch Tower

On 3rd tower finally

(if not mistaken is the 3rd one)

I can still remember I start giving up after the second tower after looking at the tall and complicated stair toward the third tower. I believe you will be the same under the hot summer weather. But at last, under my mum’s persistence, we finally make it to go up to that third tower. (Cannot really remember is that the third one or the fourth one.) Drinking water is another thing to be prepared before your visit. You are going to need that if you plan to pass more of the tower.

Exit stair to the path

Olympic 2008 was here

There is another option if you found it difficult to walk on the wall. There is a small path under and along the inner side of the Great Wall. You can actually use that path way to bypass some steep and difficult stair on the way. There are exit stairs on the wall to excess to the path walk at each wall portion. We used this path to go back down to the watch tower 1 bypassing the slope and steep step.

Drainage on the watch tower

The Powerful General-Ancient Cannon

(神威大建军炮)

Description board of Powerful General Ancient Cannon

We get some souvenirs at the stall on the gate area. There are quite some choices of restaurant around the shop area, i.e. fast food, café, and local favorites. We had our lunch at KFC. If you would like to stay a night at Badaling, hotels and motels are available around there.

Cannon

Great Wall Full View Cinema

After lunch, we took a visit to the Great Wall Full View Cinema (长城全周影院). It is a 360-degree-full-screened cinema, playing the documentary of Great Wall of China. You can see the 360 view of Great Wall in the cinema. It feels like you are at the real location of the Great Wall. One show is about 15min long and it repeats every 15min until closing. You go in any time, stay as long as you wish, and leave any time when you feel bored.

Great Wall Museum of China

The Great Wall Museum of China (中国长城博物馆) is not far next to the cinema. The entrance is free and it is closed on Monday. The models of the famous Great Wall gates are displayed in the museum. There are also descriptions and information on the function of each building structure.

Logo of Great Wall

The Great Wall is a must go attraction in Beijing. I agreed with this saying: “You are not a true man if you never been to the Great Wall” (不到长城非好汉).

“Bu Dao Chang Cheng Fei Hao Han”

Welcome to the Great Wall

One more achievement in Beijing, I have been to the Great Wall. We left Badaling around 3.22pm with the train route Y580 and continued our journey to the Olympic Sport Center.

Travel Tips:

First-class seat train ticket price (one way): RMB 17 

Second-class seat train ticket price (one way): RMB 14

Great Wall entrance ticket price: RMB 45

Full View Cinema ticket price: RMB 40

Together Promotion price: RMB 80

Great Wall Museum entrance fee: Free

Around Badaling:

ChaDao Village (岔道村), City God Temple (城隍庙),

Badaling Wildlife World (八达岭野生动物世界),

ZhanTianYou Memorial Hall (詹天佑纪念馆),

The Great Wall Museum of China (中国长城博物馆),

Great Wall Full View Cinema (长城全周影院),

Badaling Bear Paradise (八达岭熊乐园),

Ming’s Tomb (明十三陵)

Reference Website:

Badaling Official Website:

http://www.badaling.org/language/en.asp

China Railway Official Website:

http://www.tielu.org/

Reference Map:

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Lu Gou Qiao 卢沟桥 - the Marco Polo Bridge

LuGouQiao (卢沟桥) is one of the Beijing’s oldest bridges; it was built in 1189 during Jin’s Dynasty. It is located about 15km away at the south-west of Beijing town city. However, it was damaged and re-built for quite a number of times ever since 1189. Luckily, the structure and its signature lion sculptures are maintained even after so many times of renovation.

Lu Gou Qiao

Lu Gou Xiao Yue (卢沟晓月)

Qiao Tou Xiao Wei (桥头小韦)

Lugouqiao information board

The history of Lugouqiao is very interesting. It is also known as the Marco Polo Bridge in English because it was described in Marco Polo’s travel note. It is listed as one of the Beijing 8 Scenes (燕京八景 – 卢沟晓月) since Jin Dynasty. It is said that the moon at Lugouqiao is more charming.

Bridge Monument by Qing’s Emperor

Bridge Monument information board

Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War Sculpture Park

In the Sculpture Park

In 1973, the Japanese attacked on the bridge and started Japanese invasion of China, this incident is well known as Macro Polo Bridge Incident (七七事变). Anti Japanese War started here in WanPing City (宛平城). The artillery hold is still maintained on the wall of Wanping City along the Chengnan St. (城南街). Memorial monuments are along the road to grieve over the anti-war soldiers. The Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War Sculpture Park (中国人民抗日战争纪念雕塑园) is next to the Wanping City. Visitors can get a ticket and visit the park and understand more about the history of the Anti-Japanese War.

Cheng Nan Street

Memorial monuments along the road

Artillery Hold on the Wanping’s City wall.

Artillery Hold on the Wanping’s City wall.

Stone Lions on bridge

The stone Lion sculptures are the most interesting feature on the bridge. There are about 496 big and small stone lions with different posture and expression sitting on 281 balusters. According to the information, there are a few sayings about the exact number of lions. Peoples saying that the stone lions on Lugouqiao hard to  be count clearly. As I walked along the bridge, I realized the stones or marbles used for the lion sculptures are different. I believe that this is due to its several renovations along different dynasty. As the dynasty change, the material and the handwork skill varied too.

Lion sculptures on bridge

Lion sculptures on bridge

With different posture and expression

During the renovation on 1986, portion of the bridge old surface are remained and maintained on the bridge for visit. You will really feel the magnificent of the bridge when u walk along it. Non of the lion is similar to each other, and each with different expression; some with angry face, some look serious and guarding the bridge; some are happy and play around with small lions; some are fierce and bullying small lions. There are a lot more, you should really take a look yourself here on this bridge if you like stone lions.  

Old Bridge Surface

Bridge surface information board

The journey to Lugouqiao from Beijing city is actually quite far. We took bus from one of the bus stop along ZhuShiKou Street (珠市口大街) to KangZhanDiaoSuYuan Stop (抗战雕塑园站). It took us about 1 hour plus to reach there. My mother felt dizzy after the long distance travel on bus. So we went into one of the restaurant along the XiaoYue Mid Road (晓月中路) for some food. At last, my mother still gave up walking over to the bridge.

Nice Food

From the bus stop, you need to walk across the flyover (the G4 Jinggang’ao Expressway) to the DongGuan South Street (东关南街). Walking along the Dongguan S. St, you will reach to a parking lot on left, and there is the Sculpture Park I mentioned above. Take a left turn into the Chengnan St next to the Sculpture Park; on your right, that is wall for the Wanping City. Along the road is the Anti-Japanese War Relic area. To go to the Lugouqiao, you got to walk all the way to the end of the Chengnan St and turn right. You should see the bridge heritage area not far away on your left.

Wan Ping Cheng

Sunset at Lugouqiao

There is some display sculptures and information about the bridge building history at the entrance of the Lugouqiao Heritage Area.

 Sculpture

 Sculpture

Cannon

Sculpture

This is definitely a worth-to-go attraction in Beijing. The bridge and the heritage are well protected. Besides the history, sunset at Lugouqiao is also quite nice.

Travel Tips:

Lugouqiao entrance ticket price: RMB 20

Opening Hours:
7 .00 - 19.00, 1st April - 31th October
8.00 - 17.00, 1st November - 31th March

Around Lugouqiao:

WanpingCity (宛平城), 

Display Hall of Historical Information of Lugouqiao (卢沟桥史料陈列馆),

Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall (中国人民抗日战争纪念馆),

Macro Polo Bridge Incident Relic Site (七七事变弹坑遗址),

Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese War Sculpture Park (中国人民抗日战争纪念雕塑园)

Reference Maps:

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