In the early 1980s, a three-man team spent two years preparing to walk the length of the Great Wall of China. The team focused on the portion that was built during the Ming Dynasty — the well-preserved part depicted in photographs and travel brochures. The 5,500 mile journey took the trio 508 days.
If the rise of layover tours are any indication, most travelers today give the Great Wall just one day of their time — or less. Here are four ways to make a short trip a memorable one.
1. Take a sidecar tour
This option is as much about the journey as it is the destination. A company called Beijing Sideways offers full-day tours of the Great Wall via sidecars attached to Chang Jiang 750 motorcycles.
If visions of World War II come to mind, there’s a good reason. The Chang Jiang motorbike is based on the Soviet M-72, which was modeled after the earlier German BMW R71 motorcycle produced (with sidecar attachment) as a military vehicle in the 1930s.
A Chang Jiang 750 motorcycle with…
