Great Wall Options: Crowded or Less Crowded

The Great Wall of China is neither a single, continuous wall nor visible from the moon. Don't worry: When you're standing atop it in cold gusts of wind, beneath a pale blue sky, it is still astounding to watch its stones and bricks bound over the hilltops like an antelope.

Wall sections stretch across nearly 4,000 miles of northern China, but Beijing offers access to many of the most dramatic and best-known segments. These date mainly from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), although the wall's origins are typically traced back more than 2,000 years, when the Qin Dynasty linked a series of older, earthen walls.

An hour or so from the city by car, the Great Wall at Badaling is one of the closest-in portions of the wall, as well as the most popular and tourist-packed. The structure has been reconstructed here, and the hilly scenery is a marvel, according to visitors and guidebooks. Unfortunately, swarms of souvenir hawkers color the experience, and tours are likely to make unwanted shopping stops designed to pry money from your hands.

Seeking to avoid the crowds, I suffered a three-hour bus ride to two of the Beijing area's most distant wall sections, at Jinshanling and Simatai. A four-hour hike between the two sections traverses crumbling -- and very steep -- portions of the wall, passing through a series of watchtowers with toothy battlements and arched windows. In some places, the paving tiles were crumbling. In others, they were pitted like molars.

While these sections may be less crowded, they're not deserted. I arrived with four busloads of tourists, and a small but relentless cadre of souvenir vendors followed us like mosquitoes.

Nonetheless, the long, often-steep hike dispersed the group, and I had a few moments of near solitude to imagine the brown winter hills covered with Mongol raiders.

Any hotel will book you on a trip to the wall, though prices and sections offered vary. Companies such as Destination Travel International (011-8610-6552-2258, http://www.grayline.cn/) -- better known as Panda Tours, its old name -- have offices in fancier hotels and tend to be overpriced. Hostels and less expensive hotels offer cheaper trips that consist of round-trip transport (no guide) and possibly a meal.

The going rate for the Jinshanling-to-Simatai hike is about $18, not counting about $12 in wall admission tickets. Lama Temple Youth Hostel, where I stayed, charged $23 for Badaling, but it did not include a stop at the nearby Ming Tombs, as more-expensive tours do. Destination Travel charges $53 for a trip to Badaling and the tombs. You can also take public buses or arrange for a taxi; ask your hotel for guidance.

-- B.B.