But with an approximate length of 21,196 km, the question is no longer whether one should pay it a visit, but simply which part of it to visit.
Badaling is a popular option due to its close proximity to Beijing (70 km) and tourist-friendly facilities like cable cars and handrails. Its restoration, however, has been criticised for being too artificial, and the site too crowded.
On the flip side, Jiankou stands out as the ultimate spot for intrepid hikers who wish to camp on the perilous “wild wall” – the unrestored parts of Great Wall, known for its crumbled watchtowers and collapsed ramparts, so dangerous that has claimed several lives over the years.
However, Jiankou is not officially opened to the public, and tourists can be arrested for trespassing if found gallivanting at the site.
The middle path is the Jinshanling section – translated as The Ridges of the Golden Mountain. It promises quite a stretch of the wild wall but is safe and still legal to visit.
As part of the Ming Great Wall – the term refers to the roughly 8,800 km length of the wall built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) – Jinshanling is 10.5 km long and features five passes, 67 towers and three beacon towers.
Its construction was overseen by General Qi Jiguang (1528-1588), known for his valiant defence against the Japanese pirates on the southeastern coast before becoming commander-in-chief of Jizhou in the north.
Jinshanling is located around 150 km northeast of Beijing and features tourist-friendly facilities like cable cars and accommodation options.
I began my journey at the East Gate entrance and hiked for 30 minutes on well-paved woodland roads to the first tower – Eastern Five-Window Tower.
From there, I walked eastward to explore a few derelict towers and made my way to the Simatai section.
Attracted by the picturesque crumbled rampart, I hopped east for the Small Fox-Head Tower and the Big Fox-Head Tower but stopped short from venturing further since there was no visible descent.
Then I pivoted westward for the main route to the Brick Crenel Tower for the exit at the main entrance. The four-hour walk was challenging as the undulating Jinshanling section consisted of steps that felt nearly 50 degrees steep.
The great view, however, was worth the exhaustion: lush greenery and an almost endless stretch of earth-coloured walls and watchtowers lining the meandering ridges – resembling an ochre dragon concealed amid the leafy terrain.
Another charming element is the ruins: some roofless watchtowers stood like defaced soldiers while some broken walls might prove lethal for heedless hikers.
Exploring these dilapidated structures felt almost like travelling in a time machine. The long history of The Great Wall began from 220 BC when Qin Shi Huang first connected the northern defensive walls and later witnessed clashes between Chinese and Japanese forces in 1933 in the “Defense of the Great Wall”.
The former marked the rise of the first emperor of China after the unification of the warring kingdoms while the latter foreshadowed the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), which later merged into World War II – both watershed moments in defining ancient and modern China.
The Great Wall also long served as the physical and cultural boundary between the southern agricultural and northern nomadic civilisations in ancient China.
In the better preserved – or reinforced – towers, educational plaques inform tourists about the history of each section.
Fun facts: Jinshanling is one of the most fortified sections of the Great Wall as the distance between each watchtower ranges from 47 to 200 metres.
Once approaching enemies were spotted, soldiers at the beacon towers would send up smoke by day, or light fires by night, to alert nearby garrisons and summon reinforcements.
The nearest tower would then relay the signal, allowing the warning to travel rapidly across the entire network of towers.
Considering the sheer length and historical significance of The Great Wall, it’s obvious why the country still values this structure as one of its foremost patriotic symbols.