Camping on the Great Wall of China

While the quote varies depending on the translation you find, Mao Zedong once said, “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” Dated misogyny aside, when you see it in person, there’s little argument to be made against the wall’s sheer presence and overwhelming scope.

But what can be better than just seeing the Great Wall of China? Camping on the Great Wall of China!

The first leg of my trip along the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Siberian railways had me starting in Beijing, China. Now, what comes to mind when people think about China? The Great Wall itself, and I knew that I had to walk it.

Given the rise in global tourism over the years, I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of The Great Wall. Many of those are breathtaking.

The long snaking wall, the sunrise in the distance, mists blanketing the countryside just below the wall, and thousands of tourists crammed into the same small area. I wanted to avoid that slow, packed-to-the-brim shuffle along the wall. I needed something more off the beaten path and a bit of research led me to the idea of camping on the great wall.

Legal or illegal. How should you do it?

There are two ways you can approach this. The legal way, and the illegal way. (Do it the legal way.)

The legal way requires you to hire a registered guide service who will lead you along the wall and to your predetermined campsite, usually inside an old watchtower.

The illegal way will save you money and offers you a bit more flexibility because you basically get your camping gear, walk along the wall to your desired location, and then set up camp for the night.

Piece of cake right? Well, that depends on what you decide to be an acceptable amount of risk.

Before deciding on which type of camping I wanted to do, legal or illegal, I did a lot of research. The illegal way sounded more appealing in almost every way other than the fact that it was… you know… illegal. AND in China.

Think about that for a second before you make any rash decisions. You’d be doing something illegal… IN CHINA.

It’s all about your acceptable risk.

I came across two different articles discussing this. The first spoke about how on edge and nervous the campers were. They didn’t feel like they were able to relax until the following morning when their camp was packed up.

What sounds enjoyable about that?

I suppose you could brag to your friends that you saved $250 by illegally camping on the Great Wall of China. But I know if someone told me that my next question would have been, “How was it?” If I got a response of, “Stressful” due to a fear of being arrested, I probably would have responded with a resounding “Mehh.”

The other article was even worse. It was written by a couple who were arrested. They sat handcuffed in a completely black room in a Chinese police station for twelve hours before they were heavily fined and released.

Scare tactics, yes. But these were still just ordinary people. I don’t discuss my employment, but I don’t think I would have fared quite as well in their situation. Have you read about the time that Russia thought I was a spy? I tend to get picked out of a crowd.

Anyway, in the end, illegal camping in China was not a risk I was willing to take.

Picking a Tour Operator

The most difficult task I had was in finding an operator who would let me go camping on the Great Wall of China when and where I wanted.

I already had numerous plans in motion for how to spend my time in Beijing so I needed to be able to do this with the most efficiency possible.

The majority of these tours seemed to start later in the day at around the 2:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. range. My flight, however, arrived in Beijing at 11:00 A.M. and those extra hours would have been wasted. I know, it’s only three hours, but hey… I like to hit the ground running.

Then on top of that, most operators also don’t start offering camping trips until May 1^st due to the cold weather and I was going in April.

After a good deal of research, I ended up selecting Great Wall Adventure Club who were willing to offer me an early airport pickup and schedule me for camping in late April.

Great Wall Adventure Club has a plethora of choices for all things Great Wall related. You can opt for guided hiking without camping, camping with short hikes, camping with long hikes, dinner on the wall, dinner in a village but camping on the wall, or longer treks of up to 12 days for the ultimate Great Wall experience.

If you’re in China for an extended period they also offer non-wall tours such as a 5-day trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge and Lijiang and 4WD trips to Nepal or Tibet.

The Tour

My initial tour of choice for camping on the Great Wall of China was at the unrestored Jiankou Great Wall section. The Jiankou Wall section is reputed to have some of if not the best Great Wall scenery.

Unfortunately, this section was closed to the public by the government for fire prevention maintenance. Remember the risks of camping illegally? Had I done this on my own I would have gone there with no way of knowing that it was closed. Someone from the military definitely would have found me because they were there working.

My guide told me that the Government will routinely close locations around the country with no notification.

Instead, I went with my second choice of another unrestored section, Gubeikou.

Things went smoothly from the start. My guide and driver greeted me at the airport with a sign bearing my name. We then hopped in a clean vehicle and drove north from Beijing.

After about an hour and a half, we stopped for a meal that came included with the tour before driving another hour and a half.

Most of this time spent in the car was filled with my guide giving a good lesson on the history of China and the Great Wall.

Upon arrival at a tiny village at the base of the wall, we unloaded and took off up the path. The hike up to the wall felt a bit more commercial than I would have liked as the Chinese government is currently restoring the area around the wall with a touristy campsite. Blessedly, the wall itself is being left alone and everything was completely unrestored.

My very knowledgeable guide then led me on a 3+ hour-long hike along the wall, while giving me historical facts about the different sections.

Compared to the restored sections, it will feel like you have the wall to yourself!

While not completely deserted, there were hardly any people in the area. The few that we did see were mostly guided tourists and independent hikers. After hiking a bit, we found a good spot to camp and headed back down to the village for dinner.

There was another tour that was camping in a different tower who cooked their meal right on the wall. I didn’t realize it when I booked but I could have gotten this option by choosing a different package.

While I would have preferred this, I didn’t exactly lose any sleep over it because it was freezing and you can’t build a fire on the wall. They looked miserable.

Proof of why camping isn’t usually offered until May.

Hope you’re hungry!

Dinner consisted of seven massive plates of food on a rotating table. Everyone then took what they wanted and they were refilled. It was a lot to eat.

After everyone finished, we grabbed our gear and headed back up to our tower to make camp. At the time I found it weird that we didn’t make camp on the initial scouting hike, but I guess he was worried about leaving it unattended for so long.

Getting everything set up was quick and easy even as darkness began to fall. Once I was done with my tent I went right to bed. It would have been nice to hike around and enjoy the tower at night for a bit, but it had been a long flight and I just went through a 12-hour time flip.

The next morning you’ll be up bright and early to catch the sunrise coming up over the wall. It looks magical! …or at least I assume it does. For the second day in a row, the sky was so overcast that I couldn’t even find where the sun was without the aid of the Sun Seeker app on my phone.

I was disappointed and finished taking pictures of the “sunrise” much faster than I usually would. I did however get to pull a Tyrion Lannister off the highest point of the wall I could find. (Book 1)

After breaking camp, we made our goodbyes to the owner of the place we ate at and hopped back in the car. A stop for breakfast consisted of what was basically a funnel cake with no sugar.

After breakfast, it was time to join the morning rush hour traffic trying to get into Beijing. Camping on the Great Wall of China, mission complete.

Cost

Great Wall Adventure Club has dozens of different Great Wall adventures for you to choose from. There are options for just about everyone. They’re all listed on their website but the one I chose was 2HC1: Overnight Camping at Gubeikou Great Wall with Light Hiking. Again, this wasn’t my first choice, but it fit everything I needed.

Prices vary greatly depending on what you want to do, and how many people are in your group, but for what I did, you will be paying $499 for a solo traveler, $289 per person for two, $269 for three, $249 for four, $229 for five, and $199 for six or more.

I did a great deal of research when setting this up and I found these prices to be about average.

Airport pickup service is available for $22.99 pp but they waived this fee upon booking without my even asking.

Tipping isn’t very common in China but given the rise of tourism, it has become normal to tip your guides. $10 per person, per day for your guide and $5 per person, per day for your driver is considered standard in the area, but that felt a little low to me.

Conclusion

Was this tour worth the cost? I’d say yes. The weather was horrible and the section of wall I wanted to camp on was closed, but how many people do you know who can say they went camping on the Great Wall of China? Just being away from crowds of tourists made it worthwhile.

A few days after this, I went to see a restored section of the wall and there were tons of people. That, and the condition of the wall made it feel artificial, while the camping felt ancient.

What do you think? Would you like to camp on the Great Wall of China? Let me know below! Also, don’t forget to like and share!

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