Event: China

The Great Wall of China at Simatai

When:	Daily
Where:	Great Wall of China at Simatai
Costs:	RMB40
Opening Hours:	8am-4.50pm

The Simatai section of the extraordinary 6700-kilometre (4163-mile), 2000-year-old Great Wall of China has been left in its beautiful natural state and greets visitors who make the journey 110km (68 miles) north-east of Beijing.

This famous symbol of China is far more peaceful here than at Badaling and Mutianyu. The more touristy bits now have cable cars, shops, tour buses and restorations of what the wall would have looked like when originally built.

The Chinese name for the wall is Wan-Li Qang-Qeng, literally meaning "10,000-Li Long Wall" (roughly about 5000km). The stone frontier was designed to keep marauding tribes, including the Mongols and other undesirables, at bay. Of course, its actual building was often at great cost in terms of human lives. A Song-dynasty poem talks about the wall being composed of not only bricks but the very human remains of those who, literally, slaved away to death on it.

The wall has never been a perfect defence. Genghis Khan seemed to breach it in an easy morning's work and he probably wasn't the first, despite the 25,000 battlements and seven-metre thickness of the walls. It was more effective in banishing dissidents to the "wild west," transporting troops around the land and keeping the minorities under control.

At Simatai there are 19km (12 miles) of wall - charmingly (and refreshingly) crumbling and overgrown - to explore, providing an unforgettable walk along an engineering marvel that snakes away over the hills and seems to go on forever.