Hiking and trekking around Beijing

Beijing is not the most fascinating city as for nature and a healthy life. However, since it lies on a valley surrounded by mountains on two sides at least, it's a great place for going hiking and trekking. Some of the best parts of the Great Wall are right there, for tourists to visit when they are in the capital. The most popular segments that have been restored for visitors are Badaling and MüTianYü. However, if you go to the mountains to the north, north-east and north-west of the city, you will find hundreds of options to hike in the mountains along the old ancient segments of the Great Wall that are still original, not restored by the government. For this same reason, these are not touristic treks, and you can enjoy peace and nature, along the ancient Great Wall of China, in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by blossomed apricot trees in Spring, and mountain lakes where you can swim or cross in Summer, or walk on in Winter.

For residents in Beijing, as I was during 2 and a half years, there are many groups you can join if you want to go trekking every weekend. The most popular ones are:

1) The Beijing Hikers, which is quite commercial and charges something like USD 50 per day trip (including transportation, water and some snacks). They also organize excellent longer trips around China, for adventures in the forests, desert, mountains, etc. For the weekend, or even more.

2) There is the Beijing Walkers, which is just for fun, and you just pay something like USD 17 for the transportation an d the beer at the end of the trip (you have to carry along your own lunch and water for the hike).

3) And the third most popular group is through a social network called Meet-Up. This one also charges about USD 17 just to pay the cost of the bus and some fees, so it is not commercial either. But it's a huge bus (or two), and sometimes you got hikers which are not really hikers, and they can ruin the fun for everybody else. This is what happened the time I joined them. There was a snow blizzard (not really a bad blizzard, but a strong snow), and climbing Luangshan (2000m +) some girls hadn't even carried along a Winter cap nor gloves (WTF???), so we had to return before reaching the top.

There is another one, but it's more touristic for all-purpose, and even if they have hikes, they are actually more moderate ones, meant for families and people who are not too fit for something more rough. It is the China Culture Center (CCC), which is located in LiangMaQiao. You can find their website. They also have many longer trips all around China and even to neighboring countries, but I find them too expensive, and l didn't like the fact that you were carried everywhere, spending too many hours inside a bus, and everything was pre-arranged as for elder people or families with children. Still, for somebody new to the city and who doesn't know anybody yet and doesn't dare travel by himself, this can be a good choice, because in fact their service is very good.

You also have many other smaller private groups of people that get together to go hiking on Saturdays or Sundays, but they are not as well-known or organized, or professional. You need to be there and live with the locals to hear of them.

The mountains to the West of Beijng city can be a bit higher, but they don't have the Great Wall, which usually is the highlight. So most hikers try go into the mountains to the north. You also have to hike through more or less bushes depending on the trail you take.

In the last years, the villagers that are living in the area have been taking as a business to bully foreign trekkers to give them money in change of letting them pass to reach the mountains. Since there is virtually no rule-of-law there, you have to be careful, because you can get punched and kicked by a group of xenophobic villagers. But this is not the case if you try to remain respectful even with the disrespectful. The times we had those problems, it helped to be with Chinese friends (or driver), who would argue fiercely (just let the Chinese fix their own business and don't get involved). Or, when already hiking on the wall, and a Chinese carrying a stick shows up requesting a "fee", first you can just try to ignore him (they works sometimes with men; not with women, that get grabbed by the arm). If you notice they are getting aggressive, try to negotiate a group-price. Try not to pay for the price they say. Sometimes these fee-collectors are "official", although you will not see any uniform ¿?. Anyway... they may show you something like a ticket that makes their rip-off more believable. In any case, it's never a big sum. Just negotiate for peanuts, and go ahead. Unfortunately each time more of these nuisances are pestering the trekkers along the non-touristic routes.

Beijing has four very differentiated seasons, and you can go hiking with any of these three groups all year round; even during the cold Winter at -10 degrees Celsius on a very cold day. There you have to be specially careful not to slip on the ice covered rocks, but it's a totally different experience and scenery that is worth the effort.

If you like Via Ferrate, there is also one in the mountains north of the city. You can google it. It's a 2 hours drive form the city, and the whole equipment (including the metal grips held to the rocks) are French. I guess that helps release some anxiety! :-D