Travel and Hiking

A long but not difficult ramble along country trails and lanes through pine forests, cornfields, orchards, villages, and farmland in Miyun District.

This trail originally took us five scouting trips to put together and changes a little bit every time we visit. The hike covers a wide range of countryside scenery, including country trails and lanes, pine forests, orchards, farmland, a reservoir, the Stonewall Village, and a chicken farm, and we may see some shepherds rambling about as well.

Cost: ¥390 / ¥350 for members / ¥200 for kids

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/276/rolling-hills-and-empty-lanes/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

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A looping walk over tricky terrain and unrestored 'wild' Great Wall on the west side of Jiankou, peaking at the impressive Nine-Eyes Tower.

On a clear day in this spot in the heart of the mountains it will be possible to see the towers of our Great Wall Spur and Chinese Knot hikes, and the Mutianyu Great Wall, with glimpses of other sections of the Great Wall that follow nearby mountain ridges. When it's really clear, you can see all the way back to the skyscrapers of Beijing's CBD.

After hiking up to Nine-Eyes Tower we’ll take a side trail to get back to the Great Wall on the west side of Jiankou, and hike along it towards the Chinese Knot. We'll finish the walk not far from there, hiking down hill trails to the village car park.

Cost: ¥430 / ¥390 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/468/nine-eyes-tower-2/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

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Walk from Gubeikou to Jinshanling, following stretches of restored and unrestored Great Wall and taking a detour through the pretty farmland that surrounds Hemp Village, finishing all the way over at the eastern end of Jinshanling.

Walk from Gubeikou to Jinshanling, following stretches of restored and unrestored Great Wall and taking a detour through the pretty farmland that surrounds Hemp Village, finishing all the way over at the eastern end of Jinshanling.

The hike begins at the Gubeikou section of the Great Wall in Miyun County, very close to the border of the Beijing and Hebei provinces. Even though it’s designated as a park, this section of the Great Wall is largely unrestored. It’s not often visited either, probably because it is so far away from central Beijing.

We’ll start the walk with a short climb up to a tower on the Wall. There are a lot of towers on this stretch of the Wall – some in good condition, some tumbled down to foundations only. From the first tower we can see the Wall stretching off into the hills of northern Miyun. We’ll be following it the other way, towards Jinshanling, and Hebei Province.

Along the way to Jinshanling we’ll get a different view of the wall, walking a trail by the base of the Mongolia side, and making a few tricky ascents and descents on the way to the archway that will get us back on top. This section is the west side of the Jinshanling Great Wall.

We’ll be following the Jinshanling Great Wall from west to east, starting off on the unrestored section before heading down into the main restored area. We’ll head straight through the restored area, and on towards the Simatai Great Wall.

Cost: ¥510 / ¥460 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1037/gubeikou-to-jinshanling-great-wall-east-4/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

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Hike a relatively mellow track through the mountains northwest of Beijing, reaching the quirky and intriguing Baipu Temple for a mid-afternoon look about.

A lot of visits here just cover the temple area – which is fine by itself, of course! – but we’ll make our visit a mini-pilgrimage by hiking in through the hills.

The hike

We start off at an out-of-the-way spot on the side of the road that goes over the mountains in the northwest of Beijing, stepping off the bus and right on to the trail.

The trail is flat to begin, but we’ll soon be starting the first climb of the day.

We’ll be hiking up a narrow valley, heading for a low ridge. Before 2023, this part of the hike would have been on a nice dirt track, passing through pine forest. But this area was hit hard by the Typhone Doksuri flooding mid-2023, and now the scenery features exposed tree roots and a lot of rocks that were previously covered by pine needles and top soil.

At the top of the valley we’ll turn off and hike up to a little pavilion on a low peak. We’ll take a break at the pavilion—a nice spot to gaze about the mountains, with views back to the Changping urban area if it’s a clear day.

From the pavilion we’ll follow a track along the ridge for a short while before hiking down into a valley. This part of the track was mostly untouched by the torrents, but we’ll still see some slips.

The valley track eventually leads to the backdoor of Baipu Temple, but we’ll have to get by the pig farm first!

The pig farm is in a narrowing of the valley, and the farmer has put fences across the narrow parts to keep the pigs in. It’s not a major obstacle, but we’ll need to climb a low fence to get in, and maybe balance our way along the top of a concrete wall if the road is blocked by the pigs.

After the pig farm, not far down the valley, we’ll get on to a concrete road. That road eventually brings us down to the temple, which is where the hiking part of our day finishes.

The temple

Stelae at the Baipu ‘White Waterfall’ Temple site date it to the Liao Dynasty (916–1125), and there are carved tablets and stelae that date restorations and extensions to various times during the Jin(1115–1234), Yuan (1279–1368), Ming (1368–1644) dynasties, and the Republic of China era (1912–1949).

The temple has also been ruined a few times. During the Republic of China era the temple was destroyed by a local warlord who wanted the auspicious location for his own ancestral tombs. The temple was later rebuilt by local villagers. Veiled references and hints in Chinese-language sources suggest it was sacked again during the Cultural Revolution. Most of what’s seen there today was built between 2000 and 2016 by Abbott Huineng.

Of particular interest is the shrine inside a cave high on the hillside, the huge dragon sculptures, and the can’t-miss-it white Buddha surrounded by gold.

At the temple, you’ll be able to look around by yourself, or follow the guides about the main sites. We’ll set aside about 45 minutes for your tour of the temple.

Cost: ¥380 / ¥340 for members / ¥220 for kids

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1968/through-the-hills-to-baipu-temple/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

https://www.beijinghikers.com / info@beijinghikers.com

Hike on hill trails and Great Wall between Jiankou and Beigou Village, getting a look at Great Wall between Jiankou and Mutianyu and finishing with a scenic walk down into Beigou Village.

We'll start off the hike by following a zigzag hillside trail that rises quickly to a Great Wall tower that is almost 1,000 metres above sea level. From the tower we can see the Jiankou basin, as well as the many other sections of Great Wall in the area.

From there we'll head east, following the wall towards Mutianyu. We'll end up at the northwestern end of the Mutianyu Great Wall and we’ll follow the wall down towards the main park area. On previous visits here we’ve heard the din of all the visitors to Mutianyu off in the distance—surprisingly loud!

We’re going to avoid all that and hike a paved trail down the hillside to Beigou Village, passing through tidy chestnut orchards on our way down to the village square.

Cost: ¥460 / ¥415 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1921/jiankou-great-wall-to-beigou-village-6/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

https://www.beijinghikers.com / info@beijinghikers.com

Visit Fangshan District for a short stroll up to a lookout, a big lunch at a country restaurant, and a 1.5 hour tour underground at Stone Flowers Cave.

Stone Flowers Cave (AKA Shihua Dong) is a karst cave in Fangshan District, in Beijing’s southwest.

It’s a scenic area, which means colourful lighting and good paths for walking on.

The main cave system has seven levels, and goes deep undeground. The top four levels are open, and we’ll visit them all on the full 2.5km underground loop walk, bottoming out on Level 4 at 150m underground.

The top level of the cave is dry; the lower levels have drips and trickles of water, and they say there’s an underground river all the way down on the seventh level. The temperature inside the caves is a constant 13–16°C.

Down in the caves we’ll see a whole lot of speleothems: stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstone, ‘stone flowers’, ‘crystal flowers’, shields, rimstone pools, and cave popcorn.

Cost: ¥480 / ¥430 for members / ¥240 for under 18s

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1823/stone-flowers-cave-visit/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

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An extended version of our regular High Rise hike, adding a walk down a wild valley and two medium-rise hills on the way to the end.

We’ll start the hike with an easy warm up, walking through chestnut orchards on concreted field tracks. As the hills get steeper we’ll reach the end of the orchards and start the ‘high rise’ part of the hike, following a narrow path up a big hill to an almost-800 metre peak. Our starting point is at around 300 metres above sea level, so this is a pretty good climb. Your breathtaking climb will be rewarded with breathtaking views.

On the regular version of the High Rise hike we skirt around the tallest peak in the area. Today we’ll offer the option to go all the way to the top, which we’ll find marked with a trig, and then a little bit farther on to find a pile of stones that is supposed to be the remains of a watchtower. We should arrive at the pile of rocks in time for lunch (and hopefully long views of all the surrounding mountains).

We’ll come down again to find our regular trail, and follow it around the peak to find a track that leads down through terraced chestnut orchards to a small village, a tiny settlement of around 10 houses linked to a larger village by a concrete road.

Instead of heading out to the larger village we’ll follow a little concrete farm track farther up into the hills, crossing over into a long valley.

If we kept hiking all the way down the valley we’d end up at the Lakeside Great Wall. But before we get there we’ll turn off to cross a medium-rise hill, hiking a farm trail through terraced chestnut orchards and then down in to the valley on the other side.

Cost: ¥390 / ¥350 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1718/high-rise-plus/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

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New hike! Hike up to Great Wall towers high above the White River for superb views of mountains, the White River canyon, and the Miyun Reservoir.

The Lupiguan ‘Deerskin Pass’ Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty to block off a pass in the mountains north of Beijing.

The Great Wall across the floor of the valley – a tall wall, with an arch called a ‘Water Pass’ to let the water through – was demolished to make way for a modern-era bridge over the river. The ruins of the Water Pass are now completely submerged by the Miyun Reservoir.

The large towers atop the ridges on either side of the bridge are still visible, and if you’ve done our White River hike before then it’s likely you will have spotted them high up on the cliffs as we drove past on the way home.

On this hike we’ll explore the east side of the pass, getting a look at the towers and nearby wall and checking out an internet-famous viewpoint of a horseshoe bend in the lower reaches of the White River.

Cost: ¥400 / ¥360 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1953/lupiguan-great-wall-2/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

https://www.beijinghikers.com / info@beijinghikers.com

A looping walk over tricky terrain and unrestored 'wild' Great Wall on the west side of Jiankou, peaking at the impressive Nine-Eyes Tower.

On a clear day in this spot in the heart of the mountains it will be possible to see the towers of our Great Wall Spur and Chinese Knot hikes, and the Mutianyu Great Wall, with glimpses of other sections of the Great Wall that follow nearby mountain ridges. When it's really clear, you can see all the way back to the skyscrapers of Beijing's CBD.

After hiking up to Nine-Eyes Tower we’ll take a side trail to get back to the Great Wall on the west side of Jiankou, and hike along it towards the Chinese Knot. We'll finish the walk not far from there, hiking down hill trails to the village car park.

Cost: ¥430 / ¥390 for members

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/560/great-wall-nine-eyes-tower-3/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

https://www.beijinghikers.com / info@beijinghikers.com

Explore the Panlongshan section of the the Gubeikou Great Wall, starting with a climb up to the 24-Eyes Tower, finishing with a look at some of the Great Wall towers on the west side of the big North Gate, and hiking all the wall in between. Includes a post-hike lunch at a countryside restaurant.

24-Eyes Tower is the highest tower on the Panlongshan ‘Coiling Dragon Mountain’ part of the Great Wall, and was one of the largest, too. The name ’24-Eyes’ came from the number of windows—six on each of the tower’s four sides. The tower only has two sides now due to damage over the years, including explosions and gunfire during a 1930s battle between Chinese and Japanese armies.

From 24-Eyes Tower we’ll hike down the Great Wall, heading for Gubeikou’s North Gate. We’ll be on the wall most of the way there, passing through Haowang Tower and the General’s Tower along the way.

Just after the General’s Tower we’ll take a detour off the wall to head for the North Gate, hiking hill trails to get back to the wall that encircled Gubeikou Village, and then along the wall to the North Gate, an arched gate in the wall.

Includes a post-hike lunch at a countryside restaurant.

Cost: ¥470 / ¥420 for members / ¥240 for kids

See a full description, more photos, and book online at https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/1772/gubeikou-great-wall-3/

Beijing Hikers—fun and friendly hikes and trips around Beijing and greater China, since 2001.

For more updates on hikes and trips follow our WeChat account BeijingHikers北京爱山 and keep an eye on www.beijinghikers.com

https://www.beijinghikers.com / info@beijinghikers.com