If you only see one section of the Wall, make it Mutianyu

Badaling is closer and busier. Mutianyu has the cable car up, the toboggan down, and stretches where you can hear the wind instead of a loudspeaker.

Book the entry ticket online; the cable car and the toboggan are sold separately. Allow around ninety minutes each way from the centre, leave by eight, and bring water — there is very little shade on the towers.