Day 1: Beijing - Old Dragon’s Head - Shanhaiguan (L+D)

We will meet you in the morning at 7:30 a.m. You’ll enjoy a combination of a Western and Chinese breakfast on the first floor restaurant of your hotel. From there we will make the 4.5-hour drive to the Shanhaiguan Pass (The First Pass of Great Wall of China), which is in a town situated in the northeast of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. It adjoins the Bohai Sea to the southeast and the Yanshan Mountain to the northwest.

After lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, we’ll have a tour to the Great Wall Museum to learn about the history of the Great Wall. You’ll also learn about the history and military strategy of this section of wall, as well as see military relics. We will start our hike at Old Dragon’s Head, also known as Laolongtou. Laolongtou is the most eastern section of the Great Wall, which extends into the Bohai Sea. Standing here is almost like being on a peninsula as you can feel the overwhelming power of the rolling sea. This hike takes about 40 minutes.

After marveling at the scenery here, we will make our way to the Shanhaiguan Pass Fortress, which is also known as “The First Pass Under Heaven”. Climbing up the Zhendong Tower, you will see that to one side of the tower is the rolling sea, while on the other lies the impressive Great Wall.

For the night we will stay at the Jinshan Hotel and have a tasty dinner of Northern Chinese cuisine to get you started for tomorrow’s hike. Be sure to wear a long sleeve shirt, as we will be walking through lots of bushes tomorrow.

Day 2: Jiaoshan – Sandaoguan - Dongjiakou (B+L+D, 5-6 hours of hiking)

Today we will hike from Jiaoshan to Sandaoguan (Three-layer of Wall Pass), which will take us 5-6 hours. We’ll hike from the bottom of Jiaoshan Mountain up in order to enjoy the beautiful bird’s-eye view of Shanhaiguan city in the early morning sun-light. Hiking partly on the wall and partly by following a wild mountain trail in a northeasterly direction for about three to four hours, you will find yourself in the beautiful valley overlooked by Mt. Longevity: huge stones, quiet forest and crystal creeks. In the shadow of Mt. Longevity sits the little village of Sandaoguan with about 35 families living in it.

After a brief lunch, we’ll walk down to Sandaoguan village. After a short rest, we will drive about one and a half hours to Dongjiakou village, where we will stay in the local farmer's home. It’s very simple, but clean.

Day 3: Dongjiakou-Chengzhiyu-Xiaohekou Great Wall
( B+L+D, 8-9 hours of hiking)

In the early morning after breakfast, we will hike up the mountain in Dongjiakou village for the beautiful arch-stones that contains amazing reliefs, and Cihou, a ruined fortress that can only be seen in this part of the Wall (about one hour). Then we will go around Dongjiakou village to more closely examine the ruins of the fortress and chat with the villagers, who are the descendants of the builders and guards of the Great Wall. The hike takes about 2.5 hours or 3 hours. Lunch is at Dongjiakou.

The rest of the trek to Xiaohekou takes us about 5 hours, passing Chengziyu village on the way (where we will have our lunch). At the end of the trek, we will drive from Xiaohekou to the nearby Qingfeng hostel.

Day 4: Baiyangyu Marble Wall - Beijing (B+L, 3 hours of hiking)

After breakfast, we will make our way west along the wall into Baiyangyu. Baiyangyu enjoys the unique reputation of marble Great Wall.  “Baiyangyu” literally means “White Sheep Valley”. A river called Baiyang River passes the valley from north to south. There used to be a grand water pass of the Great Wall bridging the valley which now still divides the Baiyangyu Great Wall into two sections – East and West.

Baiyangyu Great Wall has some unique features different from other sections of the Wall. Firstly, its water pass town had a double water wall – upper part and lower part, constituting a solid water town which was easy for self-defense and attacking invaders as well, part of the military defense system in Baiyangyu Great wall. Second, the east section of the Wall has a 1.5km unique marble wall, 10km high and 5m wide, rarely seen among other sections of the wall. Third, among other towers, Shenwei Tower (Powerful Tower) on the west section of Baiyangyu Great Wall is the most remarkable. Unlike other watch-towers sitting on the wall, it was constructed to the outer side of the wall. If you walk eastward from Baiyangyu Great Wall, you will reach Xuliukou Great Wall and on to Shanhaiguan Pass meeting the ocean; walking westward, you get to Badaling Great Wall around Beijing.

We'll drive back to Beijing after the hike and at about 4 p.m., you'll be in the city again.