Visiting the Great Wall of China

We are going to see the Great Wall of China on Sunday. We have not made any plans on how to do this. What is the best way (budget a factor, but not the only one... we want to have a good experience). Also if anyone can detail the differences between taking a taxi there and taking some type of tour, that would be great. Thanks

I had been to the Great Wall using the local tour bus and taxi on 2 different trips.


Local Tour Bus - range from RMB160-180 per pax depending on the agency. Can be arranged thru Hotel travel desk a day ahead. It can be either being picked up at the hotel or being assigned to meet at a certain venue, depends on the tour agency's arrangement. Insist to be picked up at hotel's lobby as it is around 6.30am.

Given about 1.5 hrs to hike the great wall and the tour lasts from 7am-7pm as it included a number of small factory visits & Ming Tombs.

FYI, you need to be punctual, as the tour bus waits for nobody! The tour could have been better without the factory visits.


You may want to check with hotel whether there are assigned "foreigner tourist bus" if you want to skip the factory visits. I read that there is tourist bus No 2 picking up tourists at National Museum. This could be cheaper, but I had not tried this.


Taxi - Last yr, 3 of us wanted to go to the Great Wall at our own pace and secured a taxi through the hotel's conceirge for about RMB700 plus ( cannot remember the exact price). It may be higher if using the meter.

Do not pay the taxi until you had been dropped off at hotel. If you do not speak Mandarin, ask the conceirge to communicate to the driver on the price for ?? hrs, your itinenary etc.


Maybe others can provide you with more details based on their experiences.

Last time I was in Beijing 3 of us took a taxi for the day, went to great wall, ming tombs etc - cost 400 all in - he paid the road tolls, we didn't - we did splash out and treat him to lunch!


We just asked a driver on the street if he'd go and for what price - guess if you can't speak mandarin you may have to get hotel to do it and it may cost more.


Make sure you check prices for food if you get taken somewhere - some places don't have the price on the english menu and then you find it's 200 per dish - classic tourist scam - happens quite a bit up there.


HTH's