Jinshanling Great Wall Morning Hiking Tour

Horribly Organized with Hidden Expenses First, I am not sure why they continue to sell tours to this region when that section of the wall is closed for maintenance. They substituted a different section of the wall of course, but it made for added complexity. We were picked up at our hotel at 6:15, before the hotel even began serving breakfast. We then proceeded to sit on two different buses for nearly two hours before even departing for the wall. Although they did give us water and bread, I would have much preferred to eat a real breakfast and be responsible for getting myself to a centralized meeting point by 7:45 for an 8:00 departure. The bus ride was smooth, allowing for one restroom stop during the 2-hour drive. Upon arriving at the wall, the guide informed us that a one/way cable car ticket was an additional 90RMB/person about 15 USD. The way the timeline was presented to us, it seemed like purchasing at least one cable car ticket would be necessary because the time allotted was insufficient to walk both up and down. In the end, we ended up having to purchase tickets for both directions because the signs for the trail are not well marked and the cable car station was the only thing we could find. Honestly, the Great Wall itself is okay. Its most impressive when you can see it snake off into the distance and start to appreciate its length, but because the air quality in China is regularly horrible, the view was smoggy and really took away from the beauty. We did get to enjoy some fall color and this section was not very crowded. Since our scheduled lunch time was 2pm late for most Americans and unreasonable for anyone forced to skip breakfast, we attempted to leave the Great Wall area to grab lunch on our own. However, since their process is to scan the park ticket on the way out, and our guide never actually gave us our tickets, we were forced to wait another hour for the rest of the group. Luckily, lunch was ready to go as soon as we arrived at the restaurant and the food was good more of an American-style Chinese food. We finished quickly and took the opportunity to walk around the small town not included in the tour and frankly, almost better than the wall itself. Overall, I do not recommend this tour. The tour guide and driver both did a fine job, but your time will not be well utilized and its going to cost you more than the advertised price if you want to make the most of your time walking along the wall.

Great: this section of the wall has very little visitors. Good: the 3 hour hike is incredible. Once in a life time adventure. Ok: the hike, can be tough with the steep stairs and inclines but manageable with breaks. Take bottled water! Bad: Paul tour guide. Bad English, left us on our own

This was an amazing tour, away from the busy tourist side. We basically had the wall to ourselves so we had great photo opportunities and an intense hike . Our guide Nancy was informative and excellent, she has a great passion for her work. The lunch was delicious as well. No shopping trips so this is highly recommended

great transfer services, very well organized and this section of the wall is not too crowded. very steep to climb, but we had amazing views! great lunch too.

One of the best parts of the Wall I have walked, good access but not over-crowded, and parts of the Wall are very original. This Viator tour worked very well.

Chan was AMAZING! Had an amazing time - went on Sept.29th - few days before the most busiest time of the year and China. Our tour had almost no people on the wall - Fantastic! It ended up being just the 5 of us, including Chan.. who did everything to make the hike a memorable experience. Helpful tip - Chan is as good as they come, ask him for other tours when you're in the area. This tour had zero tourist trap shops ie. silk shop, tea shop, pearl shop, jade shop etc. Loved it!

Great part of the wall! Get your monies worth with every step climbed. Altitude and rough conditions of this section of wall are NOT for the faint of heart! Book this tour!!!

First time on the great wall, but we really think that we made the best choice by booking this tour. Thanks to Nancy

After booking the tour online, a week prior for the Sunday tour, we did not receive ay confirmation from the third party tour operator China Travel Depot on the pickup time from our hotel. We asked our hotel to call on our behalf. It wasn't until the day before the scheduled tour, in the late afternoon, they called our hotel reception and confirmed the pickup time as 6:20am. The driver arrived promptly the next morning. We were picked up in a small van, but then transferred to a bigger bus after picking up more passengers. From there the tour started. When we arrived about 10:30am at the Simitai entrance it started raining cats and dogs, complete downpour, Our tour guide Chan suggested we buy ponchos from the store. It was recommended that we walk up to the Great Wall and take the cable car back down after 90 RMB extra. Please be aware we were not informed beforehand of this extra cost. If we did not want to pay for the cable car, we would have to separate from the group and walk all the way back the way we came. However, given our exhaustion by the end, we were grateful not to have to climb the steep stairs back down. The spectacular view was well worth the climb. Thankfully, the rain cleared up by 11:30am. Although some parts of the wall were extremely difficult due to the steep steps, we were not rushed and were able to take our time. There were a few other tourist trekking the wall as well, while we were there. But we were able to get lots of pictures without anyone else in the photos. Lunch after the climb was delicious. We finished a little after 1pm. By 2pm, we were eating at one of the restaurants in the water town, at the bottom of the wall near the entrance. The drive back took a bit longer due to traffic. We did not get back to our hotel until almost 5:30pm. All in all, it was a great tour and worth the value.

DO NOT BOOK THIS TOUR!!!! JINSHANLING IS CLOSED!!! THEY TAKE YOU SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!! We had fun, but not what we booked. they take to a place called Simitai instead. While Simitai is good, it is not Jinshanling. It says in the subtext of the booking that Jinshanling is closed and they take you elsewhere, but I guess i did not read carefully enough. Regardless... why the hell are you selling a tour to a place that is closed? Stop selling a tour titiled JINSHANLING!!!! sell a tour called SIMTAI!!! ridiculous, that you are selling something and delivering something else. Seriously VIATOR, traveling in china is confusing enough... be a strait shooter, advertise what you are offering, and deliver what you are selling.