Jiayuguan and the western end of the Great Wall

Xiahe to Lanzhou to Jiayuguan

There aren't any direct buses from Langmusi to Lanzhou, so you have to transfer in Hezuo. Some reports suggest that there are two different stations in Hezuo and that you might have to take a taxi between them, but I was able to transfer at the same station.

Arriving in Lanzhou, I thought I would probably have to transfer stations in order to get a train to Jiayuguan, but one of the drivers in the bus-station courtyard, before I could even make it into the station, said they could take me there. They weren't leaving for a few hours, and it was a night bus, so I left my bag with them and went out to explore the city for a few hours.

Lanzhou didn't make a huge impression on me. I saw an interesting mosque, but like most Chinese cities it seemed to be a temple to capitalism, with modern shopping malls quickly replacing anything that might have looked traditional. And although Lanzhou supposedly has the most polluted air in China, the air there was a lot clearer on both the times I was there than it was when I was in Beijing.

Although I returned about a half hour before the bus was scheduled to leave, apparently I was later than they wanted; when they saw me coming the rushed me onto the bus and we quickly left. This was my first sleeper bus. These buses have three rows of bunks, but you can't lie flat on them, as they have an inclined back and head area, with your feet going into a compartment below the head of the person in front of you. Although they're actually pretty good for sleeping, by the same token they're definitely not designed for people more than 6 feet/180 cm tall.

Typical sleeper bus configuration.

We arrived in Jiayuguan before dawn, which is to say sometime before 6:30 am, and since the bus didn't terminate in Jiayuguan we were dumped on the edge of town where the highway passed by. A taxi delivered us to the center early in the morning, and I wandered around looking for a place to stay. Like Lanzhou, however, nowhere would accept foreigners except for those that charged more than 160 yuan per night. That's too rich for my blood, so I decided to stay the day and take a train that night to Dunhuang. It's both frustrating and unsurprising that China appears not to want many foreigners to see the west of the country, with their crackdowns especially affecting budget tourists who are more likely to interact with locals and less likely to be taking tours.

In order to figure out what I was going to do I again had to rely on a friendly internet cafe to help me get online, and suss out train schedules and how to get to the station by bus. I made my way to the train station, bought the only kind of ticket they had left—standing room on a 3:00 am train—dropped my bag at the left-luggage room, and headed back into town to see if I could rent a bike at the Jiayuguan Binguan. After locating the hotel (there are multiple buildings in the same compound, so finding the right person to talk to was slightly difficult) and finding the right person, I was able to rent a bike. This was great, as biking to the sights was really a great way to see the sights and enjoy the landscape. It's too bad that more places don't rent bicycles in China, as it's a great way to explore and I used to rent bikes in SE Asia all the time. Step up your game, China! Oh wait, I forgot that they don't care about foreigners and no self-respecting, loaded Chinese tourist would ride a bicycle anywhere.

Fort Jiayuguan

Fort Jiayuguan basically marked the farthest western extent of Ming China, strategically located at the narrowest point of the Hexi Corridor, and it's where the Great Wall ended. There are some pretty amazing pictures out there of the fort with snowy mountains in the background, and it's a pretty impressive sight at any time of the year.

There's a park and pond just southeast of the fort. It's surprisingly unkempt for a Chinese park.

As in Dunhuang, tourists can get rides in ultralight gliders to fly over the fort.

Poppies at the base of the wall, from the south.

Jiayuguan Fort is surrounded by an outer wall and an inner wall. The outer wall, which you can see above, is fairly small, but encloses a much larger space than the inner wall. The inner wall is much more massive and encloses a much smaller area.

The inner wall and fort is the small box on the left. The outer wall encloses it, and then all of the green area is the modern park surrounding it, which includes a museum.

Tourists can play dress-up inside the inner wall.

Looking north over the fort and inner wall, which is much more substantial. The restored stretches of the Great Wall are in the mountains back there.

The Great Wall at Mutianyu by public bus

There are a few places near Beijing where you can see the Great Wall, all with their pluses and minuses. The closest, most famous, most heavily restored, and busiest of them is Badaling. You can get cheap tours that go here, but many of them spend little time at the wall and lots of time at souvenir shops where you're pressured to buy stuff. The second most popular and restored place is Mutianyu, which is supposed to be a decent compromise between accessibility, authenticity, and popularity. While there are less restored and more secluded areas of the wall, they are also much harder to access as a solo traveler.

When I went to Mutianyu, it was possible to go all the way there by public bus, via bus 867. Although it did not run during the winter, it was possible to go from the terminal outside Donzhimen station all the way to the base of Mutianyu. Sadly, that service seems to have been eliminated in July 2014.

What remains is the express bus 916, which is faster and runs all year round, but doesn't go all the way to Mutianyu. Instead, it drops you off at Huairou, which is about 20 minutes away from Mutianyu. From Huairou you can share a car or minivan to Mutianyu for about 20 yuan per person, or you can take bus 936 and get off after the 8th stop (but be careful because it's not the final stop). Bus 916 runs every half hour or so from Dongzhimen's Public Transfer hub, which is a covered indoor terminal accessible from inside Dongzhimen station, and costs 12 yuan.

In all honesty, the need to transfer to a minibus or private car would change the calculus on where I would go: it was so much simpler with the 867 direct bus. Now, I would probably consider going to Simatai or Jinshaling, both of which are as easy as the new 916 + car route. It takes longer to get there, and you can't really make them a half-day trip, but they are said to be more interesting and photogenic than Mutianyu.

The Great Wall Experience at Mutianyu

Once you're at Mutianyu, you really have to wonder just how bad Badaling is, if this is considered the less-touristed location: there's a cable car you can take to the top of the mountain where the wall is located, and a toboggan ride you can take down from the summit. It's not a particularly long or hard walk up to the wall—stretches of the wall are actually steeper—and once you reach the wall you find lots of vendors selling souvenirs but mainly things like beer and soft drinks, as well as chocolate bars and snacks. It's hot and humid, and unless you want to pay multiples of what you should pay, be sure to bring your own water and drinks from Beijing.

The smog that plagued Beijing was no better at Mutianyu, where visibility and contrast were in short supply. While light smog might be atmospheric, the conditions were pretty ridiculous.

A dog relaxes at the base of Mutianyu.

I wonder what it looks like on a clear day—believe it or not, but there are actual towers in this picture.

And a landscape in the fuzzy white background.

At least you can see something more than 5 meters away in this one.

Looking up towards the eastern terminus of the restored wall.

The eastern limit of the wall, overlooking the unrestored and overgrown sections of the wall.

The eastern section of the wall is by far the busiest section. There were a lot of obnoxious young Western tourists there, doing their best to perpetuate the stereotype of the Ugly American. Shirtless guys, everyone talking really loudly and obliviously; the usual lack of consideration. In all honesty I was kind of happy to see them, as a reminder that Westerners can be every bit as inconsiderate and grating as the Chinese are.

It also gave me some insight as to what sorts of things the loquacious Chinese might be talking about with the strangers they chat with: if they're anything like these Americans who had been thrown together on this sightseeing expedition, they talk about nothing more consequential than the Chinese equivalent of college sports and their favourite TV programs (very topical when climbing the Great Wall, I'm sure).

The cable car and pathway deposit you at the bottom of this section of the wall.

Looking out from a guard tower.

 One of the vendors at the top of a steep section had a Chinese flag, and would offer to take your picture for free. It was a good ice-breaker and goodwill generator.

Top of the hill gives you a good view of the haze.

This was the other end of the restored section. No one was here because it was the top of a long climb and most people don't have enough time to go that far.

On the way back.