Huairou North Street and other information

Pradipta, I am afraid that the driver and conductor can't speak English. You'd better show her which stop you need to get off and ask her to inform you to get off when the bus stops. The station is written as 怀柔北大街 in Chinese. You can show her "我要在怀柔北大街站下车。到站请通知我下车。谢谢！" It means "I want to get off at Huairou North Street Stop. Please let me know when the bus arrives there. Thank you very much."

There is a Subway (fast food restaurant) near the ticket office. You can buy some food there. Also there are shops where you can buy water. However, you should understand that food and water are sold expensively here.

Hi, Thanks for your help. Let's see if I can manage.
Cheers!
P

Hi Pradipta
How did you go with the bus? we are a party of 70 year olds visiting in Nov so are a little worried about finding the right bus stops but find the private car a little expensive for our budget

Hi,
Thanks for writing. I wanted to share my experiences already in the last month but didn’t have enough time to write. It’s good that you asked me and I am glad to share my experiences. Overall, my trip was really nice. Of course had some problems but after visiting the Great Wall you won't remember them anymore! November would be good in terms of temperature. August was terribly hot.

Now coming to the trip. I took the bus 916 Express from Dongzhimen at around 8 am. Dongzhimen bus terminus is not very far from the nearby subway station. However, I took a taxi from my hotel (near Beijing South Railway Station) to Dongzhimen and paid 38 CNY. Bus ticket price was 12 CNY (one way) without the transport card (6 CNY with the card). You need to buy the ticket before you board the bus as the driver does not sell tickets on the bus. It’s not a problem though. I took a print copy of what Patrick suggested and showed that to the driver when the bus started. It was helpful. After about 70-80 minutes the bus ‘probably’ arrived at North Huairou Bus Stop. ‘Probably’ because the driver told me to get down at that point and I saw there were many buses coming and going (could be a bus terminus). So, it was ‘probably’ the place.

I took a private car to the wall and paid 40 CNY after some negotiations with the driver. I think if you are in a group then it helps in terms of sharing the cost. The price may also vary during different times in a day. I was told that my price was cheap as I arrived at the Huairou North Street Stop at around 10 am. Normally the price in the morning is high. But I had no opportunity to verify it. Anyways, my car took about 30 minutes to reach there. I bought a ticket for 160 CNY (entry ticket to the wall plus cable car up and slideway down).

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Part 2

From the ticket office, you need to walk a bit to take another bus which will take you at the foot of the Great Wall. This bus service is included in the ticket price (both ways) and it is organized by the local authority. So, no problem. From the bus you still need to hike a bit to come to the cable car point. But it’s only a short distance (may be 100-150 meters).

I would suggest you to take the cable car both the times as sliding down from the Great Wall top is though interesting but could be tricky. You should tell your choice while buying your tickets.

I think it is not at all a problem to go to the Huairou North Street Stop by bus from Beijing (Dongzhimen) and then to the wall. From Huairou you need to hire a private vehicle to the wall. It is not also that expensive if you are in a group. To my knowledge, there is no bus service from Beijing to the wall. Others can correct me.

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Part 3

The main problem what I faced was while returning to Huairou and then back to Beijing. I was alone and private car drivers asking me to pay 160 CNY to Huairou. I wanted to pay 60 CNY but no driver was willing to take at that price. I waited for 30-45 minutes to find some other persons who would want to go back to Huairou so that I could share the cost with them. Finally one guy came and we paid 40 CNY each to get back to Huairou. Again, if you are in a group it shouldn’t be a problem.

However, the car driver didn’t take us to the bus stop where I first came in the morning. He took us to a road side bus stop to catch the 916 Express bus to Beijing. It was a big problem as I found all the 916 expresses buses coming were quite packed up and I didn’t have a seat throughout my journey to Beijing. Most of the time I was either standing or sitting on the floor. Bus took more than 3 hours due to heavy traffic all the time. So this journey was not very pleasant and especially after a tiring day at the Great Wall. Oh, I gave 12 CNY to the driver but there was not ticket. Normally there is a small box and you need to the money inside that box.

I would suggest that you tell the car driver to take you to the North Huairou Bus Stop/terminus instead of any road side bus stop. You then probably have a better chance to find empty seats on a bus from there. However, since I didn’t try this option I cannot say well enough about it. Other possibility would be to hire a private car from Huairou to Beijing but it will be expensive as you can understand. Drivers do not speak English so if you can speak Chinese it will make your life easier.

I hope this will be of some help for your trip. If you need any additional info just let me know.

Have a nice trip!
Pradipta

Thank you great help.