3 days in Beijing- 10/28/2023-10/30/2023

Mutianyu Great wall-10/28/2023

The Mutianyu Great wall is one of the best preserved sections of the Great wall of China and was originally constructed during the Qi Dynasty (550–577) over 1,400 years ago. Around 650 years ago it was rebuilt and strengthened under the supervision of the famous General Xu Da during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was by that time, the longest among all sections of the Ming Dynasty, stretching 5,400 meters (3.4 miles). 

In 1986, a 2½-kilometer (1½mile), 26 ft. high, 16 ft. wide, and contains a total of 23 watch towers section was fully restored, making it one of the longest fully restored portions of the Wall.

The start of our walk on the Mutianyu great wall by entering the watch tower 14.

It took us about 1 hour to walk and taking the cable car to get to the tower 14.

Starting our walk from watch tower 14.  We thought there are a lot of people considering this is the low season but David, our guide told us this is nothing compare to the summer where people are walking shoulder to shoulder.

Happy to finally start our walk.  From here we will walk to watch tower 20 which is the highest portion of the wall up on the uphill that you can see in the distance.

Let's go...

There is a watch tower every 100 meters (328 ft.) and they all have their unique shape.

This section of the wall was built with slabs of granite and was the largest construction scale and best quality among other sections.

One of the many watch tower.

Amazing panoramic view of the top of the watch tower.  The Mutianyu wall is surrounded by untouched woodland.

The landscape surrounding the Mutianyu wall is so pretty especially in the fall where the leaves are changing colors.

Both side of the wall have holes in the wall called a crenelated parapet.

Parapet are used by soldiers so they could fire arrows at the enemy on both sides.

The crenelated parapet is pretty unique to the Mutianyu great wall and it is very rare to see it on other sections of the wall.

View from one of the opening of the wall.

Continuing our trek.

Each watch tower has its unique design and purpose.

This one is interesting as it looks like a bridge.

Our tour guide told us to look at the mountain and see if we could see the face of a man laying down.

Here you can really see the forehead, the nose and the chin.

Hoa and David.

We are now reaching on of the main 3 watch towers.

Reaching one of the main tower that have underground tunnel.

The underground tunnel is fairly narrow and small.

We are now exiting the underground.

We still have a long way to get to the watch tower 20.

It is so gorgeous and grandiose.

A little break to take a few selfies.

Name carved in the stone by workers in the past?

The surrounding of the Mutianyu wall is absolutely breathtaking with the fall colors and the majestic mountains rising above.

The walk is actually very pleasant and we got very good weather in the fall.

Reaching another main watch tower.

Getting closer to the watch tower.

We are now on top of the watch tower.

View from the watch tower.

The sun shinning above.

We lucked out that the sun came out and the temperature was even on the hot side.

Exiting one of the watch tower.

Next...Mutianyu Continuation