Days 1 & 2
London - Beijing - Huangyaguan

Our Dream Challenge starts at the airport in London, where we catch our group flight to China's amazing capital city of Beijing.

Our awesome local challenge leader greets us at the airport and we transfer by coach to our hotel at Huangyaguan (Yellow Cliff Pass).

This area receives few Western tourists and so we can get a taste of traditional Chinese culture while admiring the Great Wall of China and the stunning views of rugged, green mountains.

After lunch, the afternoon is free for you to spend as you wish. You can kick back and relax at the hotel or explore the beautiful and fascinating town of Huangyaguan, where the new China meets the old and traditional China.

In the evening, we meet again for our group dinner.

Day 3
Huang Ya Guan - Huang Ya Guan | approx. 8km/5 hours

Waking to breakfast at our accommodation, we ease ourselves into the trekking challenge today with a gentle trek through the beautiful countryside that surrounds our hotel, with a picnic lunch along the way. This gives us a fantastic first taste of rural China and its ancient architecture.

Huangyaguan, which translates to Yellow Cliff Pass, is widely thought of as a miniature of the Great Wall. Exploring this area, we may have a chance to see the stone base built in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550 - 557) and the brick battlements laid in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). We’re also likely to see a range of Watchtowers with different shapes.

We hike both alongside and on the wall, testing ourselves with a few demanding climbs and descents; a perfect warm-up for much more to come during the following days! At the end of our walk, we return to our hotel at Huangyaguan and settle down for dinner.

Day 4
Huangyaguan - Mr Kong’s Farmhouse | approx. 12km/6-7 hours

Fuelling up with breakfast, we start today with a tough climb along the Great Wall to the top of the mountain, where we’re rewarded with breathtaking views. We also get a sense of how the Wall has changed throughout history, walking on a section that underwent extensive restoration in the 1980’s. We follow the ruins of the Wall, walking on mountain paths and occasionally on the Wall.

A further steep section takes us along a paved path through forest; this first ascent is challenging and certainly one of the most demanding climbs of our event. A steep descent through the forest follows with one or two climbs and descents, before we reach our picnic lunch stop.

After lunch, we continue with some downs, but with more ups, on the pretty, forested trail that leads us onto more sections of the Great Wall. We’ll know we’re approaching the end of our day’s hike when we meet a steep descent.

This takes us into Qianganjian, a small farming village, where we have a chance to gain great insight into the local lifestyle by staying overnight at a traditional, hostel-style farmhouse. The accommodation is a typical example of Chinese lodgings, with several rooms containing Chinese-style sleeping platforms. Mr Kong’s Farmhouse offers clean but basic accommodation, with Wi-Fi and the opportunity to buy a beer, as we settle down for dinner.

Day 5
Farmhouse - Jinshanling | approx. 6-7 hours walking

We leave after breakfast to walk down the local village road into the woods. Then, we’re in for our toughest climb of the day. The trek may be tough, but it’s more than worth it to reach a spectacular section of the Great Wall, with panoramas across the countryside.

Hiking on these epic sections of the monument provides us with a real sense of their former strategic importance the great feat the builders must have gone through. After a few hours, taking in our enthralling surroundings as we go, we descend into a local village for our picnic lunch.

After lunch, we hike along local, joyously flat farm roads for approx. 9km and pass through a number of villages. Having conquered today’s challenge early, we enjoy a generally downhill route this afternoon and immerse ourselves further in Chinese rural life.

Finally, we reach the road where our bus awaits to transfer us (approx. 3 hours) to our accommodation and the next section of the Wall at Jinshanling.

Day 6
Gubeikou - Jinshanling | approx. 16km/7-8 hours

After breakfast, we’re transferred to our starting point for today’s trek at Gubeikou, the impressive section of wall built to protect the northern gateway to Beijing. This spectacular 40km stretch of the Great Wall boasts 143 watchtowers and 14 beacons and dates back to the Ming Dynasty.

We seem to trek through time as we encounter both restored and unrestored sections of the Wall that vary in width and some may be steep. Some are so rustic that they’re impassable, so for these stretches, we walk alongside the Wall instead. Trekking from watchtower to watchtower, we see the Gubeikou Wall merging with the Jinshanling Wall.

Here, we stop for a picnic lunch in a shady field by the Wall and then climb back onto the Wall for our final section of the day. At last, we reach Jinshanling, a section often believed to be one of the most spectacular and picturesque parts of the Great Wall of China. From here, we can walk directly to our hotel.

Day 7
Jinshanling – Beijing | approx. 7km/3-4 hours

Our final day sees us exploring different (some of them very steep) parts of the Wall, until we reach our finish line at the highest accessible point.

This 700m vantage point is a fantastic place to end our amazing challenge, with views of the Great Wall disappearing into the distance.

After some well-deserved celebrations, we descend towards our bus for an approx. 3-hour transfer to our hotel in Beijing for dinner. This evening, you can choose to experience a traditional Chinese foot massage, a perfect end to a tiring, yet truly rewarding, trek.

Day 8
Beijing

Today after breakfast, we have the fantastic chance to explore the mind-blowing city of Beijing on an exclusive guided tour of the city's world-famous sites, including the Forbidden City Palace Complex Museum, the iconic Royal Lakeside Retreat of the Summer Palace and the infamous plaza of Tiananmen Square.

Minds full of the incredible history of China, we'll end the day with a fantastic Celebration Dinner.

Day 9
Beijing - London

Bidding goodbye to Beijing, we transfer to the airport this morning to catch our daytime flight back to the UK. Touching down in London, we part ways and you make your own way home, no doubt buzzing to book your next Dream Challenge!