He Bie is about a 30min drive from Badaling - There isn't too much there, from what I could see. It is a rural area with no tourists. We picked up my guide (who didn't speak English, so I couldn't get his name and headed out to the starting point for the trek.
We pulled up pretty much just on the side of the road... looking for a pathway or something, I asked (or gestured) where are we walking... My guided pointed into the thick jungle like scrub... AWESOME!
After about 45min of climbing up the side of the mountain (from what I could work out its close to 1000m high) we finally reach the ruins of The Great Wall. I stood, catching my breath, for a moment and took in the majestic beauty of where I was. In the middle of no-where, on the top of a mountain, staring at the wall.
My guide popped into the bush - I assumed to go to the bathroom, only to return with a can of beer. He had a secret stash! AMAZING! So we sat on the wall for a bit, in the shade... while I was over-coming my dumb-struck view of the world and he sipped on his warm mountain beer.
This by far was the BEST experience I had in China. We hiked up the wall to the 9th tower (before we had to turn back after running out of water)
This is a HARD hike. Most of the time I was crawling on my hands and knees and half of the wall was missing, but it's so amazing! I recommend you do it, it show you a view of the world that will take your breath away.
