Juyongguan Great Wall, located in the Changping County, 60 kilometers from Beijing, and 20 kilometers from Badaling Great Wall, and was a strategic military garrison in the ancient China. Juyongguan Pass, encircled by the Juyongguan Great Wall, and was a renowned ancient Guan Cheng (stronghold) along the whole sections of the Beijing Great Wall. This Guan Cheng, built in the middle of a 20 kilometers Guangou, made up of two passes, one in the south (Nankou), one in north (Badaling), and provided two defensive gates for Juyongguan Pass.

Nanguan Lou, Juyongguan Great Wall

The first section of Juyongguan Great Wall

You can easily reach the Juyongguan Great Wall section directly from Beijing via any of the four methods listed below; with the journey taking approximately two hours.

• By train: take the train departing Beijing Xizhi Men and alight at the Juyongguan station.
  7173, depart at 9:10 a.m., return 15:00 p.m.
  L813, depart at 15:29 a.m., return 19:57 p.m.
  L671, depart at 7:18 a.m., return 14:29 p.m.
  L673, depart at 7:56 a.m., return 15:03 p.m.
  L675, depart at 8:50 a.m., return 14:09 p.m.
• By bus: Take the bus to reach Juyongguan.
  No. 345 to Changping changing to the No. 20 public bus to Juyongguan.
  No. 919 shuttle bus at Desheng Men to Nankou town, changing to the No. 20 public bus to the Juyongguan. (06:30-18:30)
  Tourist Bus No. 1 at the northeast of Jianlou in Qianmen. (06:00-10:00)
  Tourist bus No.2 at Beijing Station. (06:00-10:00)
  Tourist bus No. 3 at Dongda Bridge (06:00-10:00)
  Tourist bus No. 4 at Beijing Zoo. (06:30-10:00)
• Near the Qianmen and Chongwenmen, there are daily direct routes to the Badaling Great Wall and Juyongguan section of the Great Wall. You can reserve the ticket one or two days prior to your visit.
• By car: Take the Badaling Expressway and take the Juyongguan Pass Exit.

Yuntai, Juyongguan Pass

Guoji Fang, Juyongguan Pass

Nanguan Lou & Yuntai
When you reach the Juyongguan Yingen Fang parking lot, the ticket office is only a short walk away. The entrance ticket is CNY45 during travel peak season (Apr 01 to Oct 30) and CNY25 in the travel low season (Nov 01 to Mar 31 of the next year). The cable car is not available on Juyongguan Great Wall. Continue the way toward the north and you will pass by the Yingen Fang, Liujiao Pavilion and Guanwang Temple. Then reach the Nanguan Lou (archway) where you will see a banner written "The number one guarding pass all over the world" atop the decorated archway. Nanguan Lou with Beiguan Lou in the north is located between the two mountains, forming a nature bottleneck in this main passage and is well explained by the old Chinese saying, "one man guards the pass, and ten thousand are unable to get through". Walk upwards along the stairways of the Nanguan Lou, you start to climb the Juyongguan Great Wall.

Guanwang Temple, Juyongguan Pass

Juyongguan Great Wall

To the north of Nanguan Lou, there is another carved arch, called Guoji Fang, the first arch from Nanguan to the Juyongguan Great Wall. Cross the Guoji Fang and there is also a ticket office near the Yuntai parking lot. And the delicate marble platform, Yuntai lies here. If you enter from Yuntai parking lot, you need to walk towards the south to the Nanguan Lou to start climbing. In the north of the Yuntai, the 4-star Juyongguan Ancient Hostel is located there.

The entire Juyongguan wall is circular with a perimeter of about 4,142 meters, stretching along the ridge line of incredibly steep mountains. It consists of two sections; the West Great Wall (2097.8 meters) on Jinju Mountain and East Great Wall (1505 meters) on Cuiping Mountain. You have two choices to start your climbing. Take the "easy" route to the East, or the "challenging" route to the West. The West Great Wall is not only higher than the East Great Wall but also rather steep and concentrates more sightseeing. There are altogether fifteen watchtowers the whole way, nine watchtowers distributing in the West Great Wall and six watchtowers in the East Great Wall.

Juyongguan Great Wall

Great Wall Climbing

West Great Wall
If you start from the West Great Wall, there are totally 1700 steps to the top of the mountain. The first section of the road is flat and an easy walk. You will initially meet the Shizi Tower and there is an offshoot to the north leading to the Mashen Temple. A 15-20 minutes trek will have you reach the first watchtower in the west. Here, you can visit the Biaozhong Ancestral Temple, Diecui College and Chenghuang Temple through the offshoot to the south of the watchtower. Continue onwards to reach the second and the third watchtowers, and then you will pass by a turret tower on the west mountain. In the ancient times, the soldiers ambushed the enemy in this hidden place.

As the way goes, the road will gradually become steep, even reaching nearly 80 degree incline above the horizontal line. Near the fourth watchtower, there is a narrow branch path in the north of the Xiju Mountian leading to the Sifang Pavilion and the Guandi Temple. This temple was built to commemorate the famous general Guanyu of the Three Kingdom times period (190-280). Before you reach the fifth watchtower, you will pass by a toilet and a Pufang. Pufang was the hidden and living place of the soldiers who guarded the pass. You could also find the Great Wall handcraft store here. Upon arrival here, you have gone through half way of the East Great Wall and reward yourself a while to rest. Before you reach the Beiguan Lou, you will pass by another four watchtowers and complete the west semicircle.

The watchtower of Juyongguan Great Wall

Mashen Temple, Juyongguan Pass

Beiguan Lou & East Great Wall
Looking back from the Beiguan Lou, only the Guancheng tower and north section of the East Great Wall are clearly visible. Near the Beiguan Lou, lies a quadrate Quancheng where the Zhenwu Temple is located. From Beiguan Lou, switch your direction to the East Great Wall, the initial section still tends to be a steep. After passing by the first and second watchtowers in the east, you will meet the No.1 flat roof. Then reach the third watchtower in the east. From the third watchtower, the rest of the way is down hill. The fourth watchtower is far from the third one, which needs pretty more energy to go through. Continue your descent and you will pass by the No. 2 and No. 3 flat roof and a toilet. After passing the fourth watchtower, you will come across a narrow branch path to the Lvzhu Temple and Changduan Pavilion. When you reach the fifth watchtower, you are nearly at the foot of the East Great Wall. Standing on the East Great Wall, Shuimen (Water Gate) on the east of the Nanguan can be seen. Shuimen is two archways built at the cross of the waterway and the Great Wall. This whole way takes about three to four hours. If you want to avoid the crowds, you can also start from East Great Wall and get down from the West Great.
Just reverse the above itinerary.

Juyongguan Great Wall

Water Gate of Juyongguan Great Wall

Near Juyongguan, in the Guangou scenic area, there are still many spectacular sights are worthy of visiting, such as Xianzhen Stone, Wulang Temple, Liulang Zhai, Tanqing Canyon, Wangjin Stone and Zhantianyou bronze. If you schedule permits, have a night stay at Juyongguan Pass Great Wall Old Hostel to continue your visit the following day. Or take the bus No. 2 to Shahe and change the bus No. 345 or 919 back to terminal station Deshengmen West of Beijing city.

Photos of Juyongguan Great Wall