Great Wall of Badaling

This guide to the Great Wall at Badaling centers on February 24, 1972, when Richard Nixon stood on this stretch during his first visit to a China Washington hadn't recognized in decades, cameras rolling. It traces the wall back to the Ming dynasty's Hongzhi emperor in the early 1500s, built to guard the Juyongguan pass, the last gap before an army could reach Beijing, and later thickened under Jiajing and Wanli. This exact section only opened to outside visitors in 1957, four centuries after it was first built as a working fortification. Best visited early, before the crowds that follow Nixon's old route arrive.