General Cycling Discussion - Great Wall of China ride.

If this is in the wrong forum forgive me and please tell me where it should have been posted for future referance.

Does anyone know if there is a bike ride that goes the entire or even part of the lenght of The Great Wall of China? Or would such a thing even be allowed? If there is no such ride and if it would be allowed do you think it would be a good idea to have a ride that goes part of or even the entire lenght of the Great Wall? I don't know to much about the Great Wall, but isn't it either up or down hill, depending on which direction you are going, or is it both up and down hill in both directions? If it is up or down hill according to which direction you are facing and if you could ride from one end to the other and back again which would you do first, the up or the down part? If you were only allowed to one direction or the other which would you want to do, the up or the down part? If given a choice I would rather do the up first then the down. But if I was only allowed to ride in one direction or the other I'd actually want to ride the up hill direction.

Would this be something that organizers of such a ride would have to get permission from the Chinese govt. for? I don't think it would be to much of a problem, because I think people who commut by bike in China far out number people who drive a motor vehicle.

Your opinions and thoughts please.

You can ride along much of the wall, but not ON the wall. Much of the wall is broken and in deterioration, so you wouldn't want to ride ON the Wall anyway.

Much of the wall goes along China's most trecherous terrain. You couldn't possibly follow the Wall exactly - especially along the mountains in the northeast like around Badalin (north of China).

Following the general course of the Wall on established roads would be a fascinating journey - bumping into the wall from time, to time, but not riding on it exactly. Remember that "The Great Wall of China" is actually a series of walls built over several dynasties and several centuries. It isn't really one wall.

Probably the way to go would be to ride from West to East. You would be riding toward the sea (high to low) and the prevailing winds are northwest to southeast. Also, and perhaps most importantly, you would be riding toward the most civilized part of China and to the airport from which you would most likely return to the USA.

Great Idea.

I think there are several rules regarding the wall. I think that most of the wall is restricted to travel and that people aren't allowed down the entire part. Also i have never heard of anyone riding along the wall. I would be very interested in hearing what comes of this cause it sounds very interesting.

Most of the wall that you see in the photos that looks rideable has been rebuilt in modern times.

This is only sections of the wall. You can't go very far without finding large sections of the wall crumbled and deteriorated to the extent that you couldn't bike on it.

Well after this topic was brought up I have been talking to people and MIKE is right. Ridding the wall would be somewhat difficult because only some section like he says have been repaired for touristic reasons and such. Also because of the strictness of the governement permits maybe required to travel in certain sections of China or a guide maybe required.

Hadrian's Wall would be easier. Largely because you could at least ride over many of the bits where it was, even if not the bits that have been rebuilt.

Cheers...Gary

P.S. My wife insists that HW is a fiction, as we drove a long way and only saw the tiniest of fragments. :)