These photos are from a 10 kilometer hike on the Great Wall. Starting at Simatai (司马台) a few hours northeast of Beijing and ending at Jinshanling (金山岭), the hike takes about 3-4 hours to complete.
Some stretches of this section of the wall are very steep and only partly restored, so shoes with good traction are a must. There are several other parts closer to Beijing that easier to climb (including Mutianyu and the somewhat Disneyfied Badaling section). But the extra time and effort pays off. The Simatai and Jianshanling hike offers stunning and dramatic views of the wall and Yanshan mountain.
To capture the wall, I brought along my 5D Mark II and Canon's 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 lenses. You can view a full screen slideshow here. Read on to see the collection of images below.
