How to get to Jiankou from Beijing?

Where is Jiankou?

Jiankou Great Wall is a wild Great Wall that is not rebuilt and is run by the government as a tourist sight. This section of the Great Wall means the wall around the Xizhazi village. This village is located 38 km northwest of Huairou district (100 km away from downtown Beijing). It is a super beautiful village! This village has 300+ years of history. It is surrounded by mountains from 3 directions and the Great Wall goes from east, south, and west on the top of the mountain. (alt 615 meters).

Why do you choose Jiankou Great Wall?

This wild section is good for people who like adventure and are very fit to visit. It is a great place for photographers and people wand escape the crowd in Beijing. Some of the places are super hard to hike.

The famous hike route is called Jiankou to Mutianyu. If you start from Beijing Knot （北京结）to Mutianyu （慕田峪）, it is over 17kms hike, with the mountains it equals 30kms walks. If you really plan to do a tough hike, you should know this before.

The most classic hiking route is a 4 hours hike from Zhengbeilou (正北楼) to Mutianyu Great Wall （慕田峪）. For this hike, you can enjoy the wild section and also enjoy the rebuilt Mutianyu Great Wall. The hike is doable for most people and can finish in 1 day which is great for people who have limited time.

Jiankou to Mutianyu Great Wall hike is a very famous hiking route from which you can enjoy the amazing wild Jiankou view and the rebuilt Mutianyu Great Wall. Even take the toboggan down from Mutianyu. This hike is about 12kmswhichis good for people who like climb Mountains and exercising. If you want to hike Jiankou, you should get to Xizhazi village 2 DUI or called Nanjili Cun (西栅子村2队, 南吉利).

How to get to Jiankou from Beijing

1. Taxi to Jiankou

As it is very far away from Beijing in a remote village, it is very hard to get there. It is about 2 hour’s drive by car from Beijing.【 Book a private transfer to Jiankou or a Jiankou Great Wall hiking tour 】. If you want to hike the Great Wall by public transfer, this is what you are looking for.

2. Public bus to Jiankou

I hiked the Jiankou by public bus last August, it is not difficult to do it on your own in 1 day. There is only 1 bus H25 can go to Xizhazi village every day which ends at Group 5 from Huairou Yujiayuan bus station. (11:30 am ). Well, this bus is scheduled for 4 pm as well, so it is obvious you can only take the bus at 11:30 am to make the hike. So wake up early in the morning and get the bus on time. 

Overview:

1. Take 916 Express （916快）from Dongzhimen bus Hub (东直门公交枢纽)to Yangjiayuan（杨家园）
2. Walk 900 meters to Yujiayuan station. (于家园)
3. Take H25 to Xizhazi village
4. Get off the bus from Group 3
5. Walk 10 minutes to Group 2 (Nanjing 南吉利)
6. Enjoy the 4 hours hike from Jiankou to Mutianyu

The cost of the trip:

916bus to Yangjiayuan（杨家园站）.…12RMB
H25 to Xizhazi village 3dui(西栅子村3队) …8RMB.
If you have a Beijing yikatong (metro card 公交卡)， you can enjoy a 50% discount on the transfer which is only 10RMB.

1. Take 916 Express （916快）from Dongzhimen bus Hub (东直门公交枢纽)to Yangjiayuan（杨家园）

From Dongzhimen Bus Hub（东直门公交枢纽） to Yangjiayuan station （杨家园）. I got to Dongzhimen station at about 8 am( if you run late, you may miss the bus). There are very clear signs that guide you from the subway station to the bus station. Just follow the signs to Bus Transfer Hall. The 916 Express (916 快)runs every 5 minutes from 5:50 am to 7:50 pm.   It takes about 1 hour to get to Yangjiayuan station（杨家园）. There are a lot of tourists get off from Huairoubeidajie(怀柔北大街) because they want to visit Mutianyu Great Wall. Yangjiayuan（杨家园） is the next station.

2. Walk 900 meters to Yujiayuan station. (于家园)

After getting off at Yangjiayuan station from 916express. Just walk 10 minutes to get to Yujiayuan station. Follow the map.
Yujiayuan is a big bus station where you will find a lot of people waiting for the bus.

3. Take H25 to Xizhazi village

The biggest problem for travelers is I didn’t find the station board for H25 at this station. I was a bit nervous. A few drivers come to me and offer a private taxi to Xizhazi with 120RMB. I choose to wait, if there is no bus coming, I may use the taxi. Fortunately, I waited till 11:30 am, the bus comes very on time. （The station board may be taken away by these taxi drivers, haha, it happens a lot when you travel! The bus was big, clean, AC, and not crowded at all.

4. Get off the bus from Group 3

It took me about 1 hour to get to Xizhazi village. When I find the bus to get to this wood gate the village is nearby. Tell the bus conductor you want to get off from Group 3 (3队). 

5. Walk 10 minutes to Group 2 (Nanjili 南吉利)

After getting off from Group 3, walk 150 meters to get to the branch way from the right picture.

6. Enjoy the 4 hours hike from Jiankou to Mutianyu

The road in this village was rebuilt this year. There is only 1 main road leading up to the wall. 1 hour later I got to Zhengbeilou tower (正北楼). You can walk down from the wall almost from all the gates open to your right hand. If you get tired you can choose to take the cable car on Tower 14(Mutianyu Great Wall was rebuilt, they user numbers to name the tower. There are 23 towers in this section). If you like to do toboggan, you should walk to tower 6 and buy the tickets. (Cable car and toboggan tickets are both 100RMB )

7. Walk down from Mutianyu Great Wall (3 ways)

1. Take the cable car to tower 14
This is the fastest way to go down. The cable car station is at tower 14. The ticket price is 100RMB per person.
2. Take the toboggan tower 6
It is about a 1-hour walk from tower 20 to tower 6. The toboggan is very interesting.
3. Walk down
There are many paths leading down from the wall. The first 1 you will see is after tower 12. If you don’t clear about the number of towers. You can find any way on your right side and walk down. It all leads down to the entrance.

Mutianyu Great Wall Map

8. Take the shuttle bus to the main gate.

9. Find H23 bus back to Huairou Beidajie station, and take 916express back to downtown Beijing.

FAQS:

1. How do I know the right station to get off the bus?

One: There is a station broadcast on the bus, so you can hear the station. Yangjiayuan station（杨家园）.
Two: There are a lot of tourists taking the same bus to the Mutianyu Great Wall. But they will get off from Huairou Beijdajie(怀柔北大街). Yangjiayuan station(杨家园站) is the next station.
Three: Show the bus conductor the name in Chinese. He normally will tell you when you arrive at the statin.
Four: This is the picture of the station.

2. Which station should we get off from H25? If we don’t speak Chinese what should we do?

You should get off from 3dui(3队)
The bus normally takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Xizhazi.
Show the conductor this:西栅子村3队.
Or show them this picture and they understand where you want to go.
You also need to pay attention to the road when you almost arrival

Related post:

How to hike from Jiankou to Mutianyu Great Wall on your own?