**Discover the Great Wall Adventure Club**

Extremely disappointing experience. I made my reservation a month in advance, only to have it abruptly cancelled with the excuse that it was “a holiday and would be too crowded.” This was common knowledge when I booked—everyone in China knows how busy holidays can be. The person I spoke with even discouraged me from visiting Gubeikou, calling it a “fake Watertown,” which I was already aware of. It felt like a poor attempt to deflect blame and avoid confrontation. I can't help but wonder if they overbooked and are now canceling early reservations made at lower prices. This level of unprofessionalism has left a sour impression before I’ve even set foot in China.

April 2025 2 Australians private tour - just did a 3 day / 2 night hike with guide Luis. This trip blew all our expectations out of the water and would highly recommend to anyone to take the path less traveled and visit the old unrestored sections of the wall away from the tourist trap. We camped one night and the second night opted for a farm stay due to weather, and glad we did. The food provided was amazing and more than we could eat, Luis was awesome, and organisation was top notch. Can’t recommend enough, worth every cent.

There are few recent 2024 and 2023 reviews of the Great Wall Adventure Club on Google and TripAdvisor. There were concerns about whether this company is still operating after Covid 19. We took a leap of faith and were not disappointed. We signed up for the 12 days Beijing and eastern section of the Great Wall of China trek to celebrate my husband's 60th birthday in September 2024. Angela Wang, the travel coordinator, and Terence Ou aka Terry are currently based in the U.S. We are based in Greece, and as such there is a time gap in communication. Angela Wang provided us with references of previous clients (albeit some are more than 5 years old), and tried to respond to our many questions as promptly as she could. We communicated using WhatsApp, and email. Terry has a team of tour guides and drivers on the ground in China who have worked with him for many years. Before leaving for Beijing, Angela Wang made sure that we have the personal mobile number of the tour guide, Oliver Zhao who was our assigned tour guide for the first part of our trek, and Barry Chen took over the last few days of our hike. Both Oliver and Barry speak good English. They are licensed tour guides of many years experience guiding international clients around Beijing city, and different sections of the wall. We found Oliver Zhao to be highly knowledgeable of the different treks along different sections of the wall. His passion and enthusiasm was infectious, and certainly made what is and can be a risky trek less daunting. In Beijing city, we covered the usual tourist spots for the first 2 days. On day 3, we started our trek of the Great Wall Ming Dynasty from LaoLongTou in ShanHaiGuan where the wall starts from the sea in the east, and made our way back to Beijing. We also trekked an East Qi Dynasty wall dating back to 1700 years ago, and visited the Eastern Qing tomb. On average we trekked at least 6 to 8 km, after breakfast and end with a late lunch. The longest trek was close to 12km. We stayed at hotels where possible and in the countryside at "homestay" hosted by local families. The rooms with exception of one homestay comes en suite, and is generally clean with modern Western style bed, and sitting toilets. We also experienced sleeping on a platform bed, not dissimilar to those in the Qing Dynasty, and a clean squat toilet on one occasion. As one would expect, the countryside in Hebei, and Liaoning is still very much authentic Chinese thus every meal is Chinese Northeast cuisine, which we found to be too salty. Breakfast is Chinese congee or a type of maize porridge serve with vegetables. The driver, Mr. Wang is competent and careful, but he does not speak much English. Mr. Wang went out of his way to help me order a Western style birthday cake (which surprisingly was delicious) for my husband when we were at a small town just inside of the Beijing Municipality. I would love to give everyone on the team 5 stars, but there are room for improvements. We recommend our family, friends and readers of this post to trek the Great Wall of China with the Great Wall Adventure Club and their team in China. It is, in my husband's words, an amazing holiday, and a trip in one life's time. Date of posting : 3 Oct 2024.

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.

Bad service. Not recommended