The Great Wall of China-Naff Sounding Touristy Things That are Actually Completely Fabulous

The Great Wall of China might seem a bit less great when you get there on a grey, polluted day after a two hour nose-to-tail drive from Beijing which they said would take 45 minutes. The coach park is packed at Juyong Pass and much of the wall looks suspiciously new. But that that not-so-ancient hand rail proves a blessing on “the Great Wall of Stairmaster”. Juyong Pass is a tourist trap - literally; there are bottle necks of people trying to clamber up and down, but the sight of buxom peroxide blonde Russians (by far the largest numbers of foreigners to visit China are from the former Soviet Block) dressed up in Ming dynasty finery and posing for holiday snaps adds to the experience.

What’s magical is that on the same day, you can also have an unrenovated slice of the wall all to yourself. A few miles further on lies a hotel called Commune, where instead of rooms, there are houses, designed by such Asian architecture stars as Hong Kong’s Gary Chang (responsible for The Suitcase House), Taiwan’s Chien Hsueh-Yi (the evocatively named Airport House) or China’s Antonio Ochoa’s Cantilever House). Staying in one of them gives you unique access to a track up to “your own” slice of The Great Wall, along which you can scramble as it snakes for miles across the horizon.

Commune By The Great Wall

The Great Wall, Exit No 16 at Shuiguan Badaling Highway, Beijing 102102
Tel: +86 10 81181888
Fax: +86 10 81181866