Badaling: The Great Wall Near Beijing
You can not leave China without having set foot on the Great Wall. It really is like going to Paris and not go through the Eiffel Tower or go to Rome and not visit the Coliseum. The good news is that the Great Wall is just that big, so you can find sections in various parts of China.
If only you will be passing in Beijing then you must conform with sections that are closer to the capital and that is Badaling. This is the most visited section of the Great Wall of China as it is about 70 miles Northwest of the city.
This part of the wall was built under the reign of the Ming dynasty and throughout the twentieth century was the goal of many restoration because finally, in 1957, was the first part of the wall that opened to the public. It is the best preserved of the long stone serpent and its altitude of 1000 meters was the crossing point Step Juyongguan.
At this point the mountains are high and difficult routes so the military post had many advantages. The original idea of ??the entire Great Wall of China was to protect Chinese borders the northern tribes and it was during the Ming Dynasty that this particular section has been fortified to prevent the Mongol invasions to the capital.
The defensive structure, composed of stones and bricks, has special holes for the archers, pits on the inside and out and fire signals platforms. It has survived time and has also witnessed important events. Today one can walk on the same site as emperors and invaders stepped on and it makes you goosebumps.
Practical information:
- Admission is between CNY45 and CNY40 depending on the season. The funicular costs CNY40-way and round trip CNY60.
- Schedules: Summer: 6:30 am to 7pm and in winter it does between 7am and 6pm.
- How to go: Badaling Highway connects the wall to the centre of China. You can also take the subway from Beijing North Station or take a bus.
China is protesting because the Dalai Lama is formally meeting President Obama soon. The Chinese don’t want any recognition of Tibet. Why not? Because the Tibetan plateau, if you look, controls a great deal of China’s water supply. Some big old rivers start up there and run from there down into China, the only water supply. If the Tibetans shut off those rivers, China would have big trouble on its hands. President Obama, we might assume, is well aware of this. Soon, he’s meeting the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader. Coincidence, of course