Spring Outing in Jingshanling Great Wall to see Apricot Blossoms

In the early April, we had 4 days off for Tomb-sweeping Day. So I decided to pay a short visit to Jinshangling Great Wall to spend a leisure holiday.

On April 5, the first day of the holiday, early in the morning, we were up to Beijing Dongzhimen Bus Station to take off to Jinshangling, together with a group of people who were interested in outdoor action trip.

Jinshanling Great Wall is located on the branches of Yanshan Mountains, between the Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province and Minyun County, Beijing. It connects Simatai Great Wall in the east and Gubeikou Great Wall in the west. It is sited in and is located in the junction of Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, 130 km away from downtown Beijing, 90 kilometers away from Chengde Summer Resort, and 200 kilometers away from Mulan Paddock.

Jinshanling Great Wall was originally built AD 1368 during Ming Dynasty, by senior general, Xuda. In AD 1567, Qi jiguang, who was a hero for defending his county from the enemies, expand and repair the great wall. So, this great wall bears a long history.

We set off from Dongzhimen Bus Station and it took us 5 hours to get to the great wall. At 1:30 in the afternoon, we reached the gate of Jingshanling Great Wall, and then we check in the hotel. The hotel is only 1000 meters away from the gate of the scenic area. After having a short rest in the hotel, we set off to walk to the Jinshanling Great Wall from Zhuanduo Pass. This is so excited.

When we were up to the great wall for a short way, we saw a lot of Apricot Blossoms blooming around the great wall, which made it look more beautiful and magnificent. Apricot blossom is one of the features of the local. The local governments also hold Apricot Blossom Festival in April every year to attract tourists. We walked westwards from Zhuanduo Building to Xifang Plarform, Xiliang Brick Building and West Wuyan Building until we got to the military restricted zones. When we got there, the time was still early for the evening, so we waited to take sunset photos for the Great Wall. There is a little sunset glow during the sunset in that day, so we casually down the great wall after taking a few photos and back into the hotel for dinner. The tourism services at the foot of the Great Wall are quite complete and convenient with eating and living. After dinner, for we decided to take the photos of the sunrise, we went to bed very early and got enough sleep for the next day.  On April 6, we got up early in the morning to shoot the sunrise. This time, we climb the great wall from Shaling Village, went eastward via Black Building, Mini Jinshan Building, and finally got to the Great Jinshan Building, which is the best place to watch and shoot the sunrise to this great wall. When we arrived, there were already some people got there. No sunrise early mist, as the sun rose, feeling a little bright, so I had to shoot the effect of warm light of the sun illuminating the wall. After the shooting, we paid a short visit to the village around the scenic area. The people here were friendly and kind. We saw many things that we have never seen before. When we got back to the hotel, it was a little late and the day ended.  After two days visit in Jinshanling, we have been basically visited most parts of the great wall and took plenty beautiful photos of it. In the third day, our tour ended and we got back to Beijing.