My Recent Trip to Jinshanling

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/jinshanling.htm   
This article along with the Q&A from members was very useful in planning my recent trip (day before yesterday, Apr 15, 2011) to Jinshanling. This is how it happened. I traveled from Shanghai to Beijing by the D308 overnight high speed train. It took about 7.5 hrs to reach Beijing South station. Anyone traveling cross country in China must try these trains, they are better than aircraft grade in terms of quality and comfort. Upon reaching Beijing I hired an unofficial taxi guy to take me to a hotel to drop my baggages and then leave for Jinshanling. But then this guy was either incompetent or just wanted to make more money from me. He just couldn't find the right place for me to stay. An advice here: always reserve hotel rooms in advance! Anyways I ended up paying him 100rmb to drive arnd looking for the hotel. Eventually I asked him to take me to the Dongzhimen Transportation Hub. From there I took bus 980 to Jinshanling for 15RMB. The ride was very pleasant with a great view of the rural landscape. At Miyun, the last stop, I was approached by several private car drivers to drive me to Jinshanling. I finalized a car for 200RMB round trip. This driver is a very nice person, showing a nice fatherly attitude towards me throughout. At Jinshanling he waited for me for about 4 hrs at the parking lot and even suggested that I take a pciture of his license plate since I was leaving behing my large luggage in his waiting car. The wall itself was very serene, something I couldn't have felt at badaling, I suppose. Overall it was a nice trip thanks much to the posts from the forum members here. I hope my post added a bit to the information in this page. Happy traveling!!