We went here on the Satruday of Golden Week, so it was really crowded, but once you are up on the wall it felt like we were in the middle of no-where. They have done a good job of restoring the wall and the vegetation in the area, and we felt overall it was well managed.

Our friend recommended a guy called 'John' as a driver to take us there. He has a late model car, and was a) very nice b) had pretty good English and c) was very professiona ringing the hotel to confirm the day before. Cost 800 rmb for the day, and he also took us to a beautiful temple. His contact details are johnyellowcar@hotmail.com (johnyellowcar 'at' hotmail.com). He also recommended a great English (and French) speaking guide to show us around Beijing (350 rmb for the day).

For anyone that is deciding between Mutianyu or Simatai to Jinshanling, think carefully about what "challenging" means to you. My husband and I are 49 and 50 years old, in good shape and not overweight. Mutianyu was just right for us for a good walking work out. We had to stop for water and deep breath breaks but did not feel exhausted afterwards. The thing about the steps is they are awkward - some are 4" tall and some are about 18 inches tall. It wasn't like walking upstairs at home where each step is about 10 inches.

Go early in the morning. We left at 8:30 from Beijing and got to the wall entrance around 10 am but after using the restrooms - nice and clean (to the left as you are looking at the wall) buying some dried fruit and tickets, it was close to 11 by the time we were standing on the wall.

Biggest suprise - Twenty-something year old female Chinese tourists wearing high heels. What were they thinking?? This is a walk that calls for nalgene bottles of water and sneakers. Take a small backpack and leave the city clothes at the hotel.

We took the cable car up to the wall (NOT THE CHAIR LIFT). At the top we went to the left side of the Wall as the last poster had suggested. The walk ended at a wonderful high spot where, if it wasn't for the smog, we would have been able to see great distances. The rest of the Wall was blocked off and the walk was in disrepair. Yes, you could climb over and continue, but frankly, I was not unhappy to have a blockade! We think this was about a mile.

We walked down and past the entrance to the cable car. Buy a drink at one of the watchtowers, cheap and nice and cold. The entrance for the toboggans is the same place as the chair lift. and about two miles past (maybe) the entrance for the cable car. We were thinking that it would be a short distance after the cable car entrance but kept walking and walking and walking! Still beautiful.

We kept looking for the toboggan /chair lift entrance and only noticed the break in the wall and a path down because we were looking for it. There was no sign. The proper entrance was further down and probably marked.

The toboggan was great fun and not scary at all. Just slow for the curves and keep off the brakes for the straight parts! Wheee!

At the bottom we bought a t-shirt for my husband and son. Make sure you buy a large enough size and pay attention to the print quality. My son is on the smaller size and we got him a mens size medium which when washed and dried turned into a mens size small (Mens' small is usually plenty big for him) and the white letters are already fading after two washes.

All in all a GREAT walk on the Wall. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

We had an amazing experience viewing sunrise on the Great Wall. For about 3 hours we had this section of the wall all to ourselves! People started arriving around 8:30 and it was much different with everyone else there.

The views from this section were amazing! The wall has been beautifully restored and maintained. I would not recommend it if you are not good with stairs. We walked up rather than taking one of the lifts. This was very challenging, but a great work out. Then we walked all the way to station 20 where the views are incredible. Station 20 is where tourist access stops with a very abrupt unrestored section of the wall. I suppose you could try to climb it to see the unrestored section, but it did not look very safe to climb up it.

We finished up the trip by walking back to station 6 where the chute ride is located. This was an amazing end to the visit and well worth the 40 RMB ticket price.

The trip to the wall was a dream come true and the absolute highlight of the trip.

What an absolutely beautiful place. I'm very glad we came to this section of the great wall. We took the ski-lift up and tobaggon down. If I had to do it all over again, I'd take the Cable Car up, walk to the left up the hill and then return, pass the cable car and take the tobaggon down. Even without tree cover yet in March, the scenery was breathtaking. The number of tourists on this beautiful spring morning was fairly minimal.