In Beijing and its surrounding areas, there are quite a few famous ancient towns, and the one with water town characteristics that is comparable to Jiangnan is none other than Bei Ancient Water Town; in the north, there are also many famous Great Wall scenic spots. , only the Simatai Great Wall in Gubei Water Town is the most dangerous and unique. As a tourist attraction developed and constructed in recent years, Gubei Water Town’s long history and culture, colorful ancient town scenery, comfortable tourism environment, and universal online services have subverted the imagination of a travel enthusiast like me. It can be said to be an eye-opener. This trip is a waste.
Beigushui Town is not an administrative town, but a tourist attraction in Gubeikou Town, about 15 kilometers away from the Gubeikou Town Government. From Beijing to Beigushui Town, there are buses from Beijing to Miyun, Miyun to Gubei Water Town, and there is the "S Line" Beijing Suburban Railway Passenger Bus to Gubeikou Town, and then take a bus. Our family drove directly there, and the journey from Wanghe Bridge on the East Fourth Ring Road was 130 kilometers. After arriving, find a parking space in the nearly "full" parking lot, go through the town entry procedures at the bustling customer service center, and then take the shuttle bus to the reserved hotel for a rest.
Historically, Gubei Water Town was once a castle and natural village where garrison guards were stationed. The long history and modern development have left behind some ancient houses, buildings, shops and cultural relics. With the relocation, reconstruction and protective tourism development, the little-known ancient villages have changed from dragon to bird, unique and vicissitudes of life, and have become well-known and fashionable tourist attractions.
The Gubei Water Town Scenic Area, including Simatai Great Wall, has a total area of ??9 square kilometers. The water town runs from northeast to southwest, and is laid out on both sides of the Tang River. Walking along the main road along the river, you can walk back and forth in an hour. The length of the water town is estimated to be more than 2 kilometers.
Entering the ancient town from Wangjing Street where the hotel is located, the bluestone-paved pedestrian street is lined with mostly single- and double-story houses. The house is built with masonry, earthen tiles, and wood, mostly with blue bricks and blue tiles, and occasionally red columns and red walls; the roof has wooden lattice doors and windows with different patterns; the roof is a ridged "herringbone" roof. The house has a separate quadrangle, a two-entry quadrangle, and a three-entry quadrangle. Due to uneven terrain and dense housing, many sloping houses have been formed. There is no concrete in the block, no brick-concrete structure, and no plastic-steel windows. It is full of antiques from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. These houses may have been residential houses in the past, but now they have been transformed into hotels, inns, restaurants, and shops. The storefront remains the same, but the interior is being renovated. The town also has original buildings. The seemingly outdated Eight Banners Hall was the place where the Zhenghuang Banner garrison was stationed. The buildings, corridors, archery range and other facilities in the hall are dilapidated and remain "authentic". The emerging ancient town has more than 40 high, middle and low-end hotels and B&Bs for tourists with different needs to choose from; there are countless restaurants that bring together specialties from the east, west, south, and north; there are convenient food stores, daily necessities stores, and souvenir shops; Footpaths, clubhouses, bowling and other luxurious leisure and entertainment venues. Unheard-of pickles, grilled pears, Qiaotou cakes, shredded radish pancakes, and skewers are all very popular, and you may have to queue up.
There are landmark buildings such as the city gate tower, archway, old stage, and Yuantong Tower in the town; there are Linggong Temple, Zhenyuan Escort Bureau, Yinghua Academy, and Riyue Island Square to show the long history and culture . With abundant geothermal resources, you can soak in hot springs in many hotels, and there are also street pools. When you are tired from walking, you can sit by the pool and soak your feet for free. Due to the inflow of underground spring water, the water in Yuanyang Lake in Shuizhen never freezes all year round.
The Goshe Hot Spring Boutique Hotel we stayed in has a small facade, average decoration, and no luxury. The hotel is a Japanese-style luxury hotel that has been renovated from many old houses. There are 32 guest rooms in the hotel. The ordinary room we stayed in was a 2-bedroom room that could accommodate 4 people on tatami beds. There is a living room, balcony, bathroom, bathing room, and dressing table. There are wooden partitions in the room, with a total area of ??105 square meters. There are also Japanese-style corridors, courtyards, and public bathing pools, which are comparable in style to Hakone. The hotel does not have a star rating but its facilities are not inferior to five stars.
The water town has the characteristics of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, just like the ancient town of Wuzhen in Jiaxing. The main river, Tanghe, is up to 10 meters wide. The river banks are vertical embankments with water-supported houses, and there are floating boats and docks in the river. The forks of the main river vary in width, and there are mostly pedestrian streets along the river, with the style of Lijiang Old Town. Get on a small boat and paddle the Tang River. In front of you are small bridges and flowing water, or people pillowing on the water, or flowers fading on the buildings, or willows floating frivolously. It is like wandering in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, and a rare sense of comfort and leisure arises.
The quaint houses, stone-paved paths, arched bridges, rowing boats, numerous shops, simple restaurants, busy workshops, and exquisite ancestral halls are reminiscent of ancient towns. The prosperous scene reminds me of the real scenes of "Along the River During Qingming Festival".
We visited a local dyeing workshop similar to the Wuzhen dyeing workshop, visited the wine cellar and production process of the winery, and bought a bottle of "Small Shao" on the spur of the moment. When I took it home and looked at it carefully, I found that the trademark was "Sima Xiaoshao" from Gushuibei Town. It was actually distributed by Gubei Water Town Tourism Company and manufactured by "Wuzhen Wujiu Factory". It's hard to tell who is who, but it seems that they are cooperating across regions, and "sisters are like one family."
In the evening, we came to the nearby Music Square to watch the "Water Dance Show". This is an application of multimedia technology that integrates real fountains, lights, music, scenes and virtual images to present a dazzling water dance show. As night fell, we put on our swimsuits and soaked in the hot springs in the hotel's private pool, watching the night view of the Great Wall and the night sky. The night tour of the Great Wall has begun, with the fluorescent lights of the cable car flashing on the hillside ropeway. Tourists carrying lanterns to climb the mountain leave a long, bright and sometimes dark "starlight belt" on the mountainside. This is when tourists get off the cable car and head towards the Great Wall at the top of the mountain. The drone show begins. At first, the fleet of aircraft took off in a mess like pigeons being released. However, the drones were "well-trained" and they quickly found their positions according to the "instructions" and formed a neat "square formation" in the night sky. The machine fleet can compile a variety of eye-catching characters, and can compile patterns that represent the landscape of Gubei Water Town such as "Wangjing Tower", "Walk the Boat", and "Yantong Tower". People watching exclaimed: The drone is "amazing"! The performance is over, the lights dim, the stars twinkle, and the night is bright. In this half day, WeChat exercise recorded 18,000 steps, about 12 kilometers; this day, I was nervous, excited, tired, happy, happy, and unfinished.
On the second day, after eating the hotel’s Japanese buffet breakfast and sushi, we went to visit the Simatai Great Wall. Simatai Great Wall is part of the Gubeikou Great Wall. The east-west section of Simatai, located on the ridge, has a total length of 5.4 kilometers and has 35 watchtowers (beacon towers). The one that can be visited now is Watchtower No. 110 in the eastern section, which is more than 1 kilometer long. There are two ways to go up the mountain, one is the trail and the other is the cable car. The trail runs 1,350 meters from the entrance to the Great Wall and goes directly to Watchtower No. 2. (The vertical height is about 600 meters)
We took the cable car there. After arriving at the upper cableway station, we walked a section of hillside road and steps to reach the East Watchtower No. 5. This section is not easy, especially the several steps, which add up to about 600 steps. Some steps are high, steep and narrow, requiring support or even crawling. This made me understand why it is called "climbing the Great Wall", and also reminded me of the courage and difficulty of night hikers on the Great Wall. I "climbed" up the city wall and walked on the top of the wall in the direction of Building 6. When I walked past Building 9, I suddenly found that the front was closed. I couldn't leave and had to go back.
Compared with the Badaling Great Wall and Shanhaiguan Great Wall, this section of the Great Wall is better protected, but it is incomplete or not completely restored, giving people a more original and precious feeling. In some areas, the lookout openings are missing from the walls, in some areas the parapets are missing, and in the empty areas there are no supporting walls or handrails. The top of the Great Wall does not seem to be wide. It is built on the backbone of a high mountain. The terrain is steep and precipitous, which makes tourists intimidated and must be cautious when walking. The Great Wall cannot accommodate more tourists. This may be due to this reason. To visit the Gubeikou Great Wall, you need to make a reservation or buy tickets in advance to control the flow of tourists.
The watchtowers on the city wall are well preserved
. The tall, wide and different-shaped enemy defense towers are magnificent and magnificent on the top of the mountain. If we count the time when the Gubeikou Great Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, it should be a miracle that it has remained standing for 700 years. The Great Wall is listed as a "World Heritage List", "Original Great Wall", and "The Most Great Wall in China" and is well-deserved.
Standing on the top of the majestic Great Wall, looking at the undulating Yanshan Mountain in the distance, overlooking the spectacular cableway and the water town surrounded by green trees, I feel satisfied and proud: it is rare to visit this place!
After sitting down and resting on the steps of the watch tower, we returned to the cableway station, took the cable car back to the hotel, checked out, and had a farewell lunch.
Gubei Water Town not only has rich natural and cultural landscapes, but its fashionable consumer services are even better. In the food court, all restaurants do not accept cash.
Users can scan the QR code to view recipes, order food, and pay, all online at once; WeChat and Alipay are commonly used for payment; they can apply for a general consumption card for scenic spots, use the card to make purchases, and get the balance refunded. Most of the accommodation and climbing the Great Wall in Beigushui Town require online reservations and online services; almost all scenic spots, hotels and other public places require temperature checks and health code scanning.
Gubei Water Town’s hotels, restaurants, drinks, etc. are “scenic spot prices” and are not cheap, but the number of tourists has not decreased and the popularity has not decreased. Most of the tourists who come here are one- and two-day tourists, there are also repeat visitors, and few tourists travel in depth. Perhaps because there are so many people "checking in for tourism" and the scenic spots are booming, Beigushui Town was named Beijing's first "Internet celebrity cultural landscape check-in place".
Among the tourists in Beigushui Town, there are more young people and home tourists, but I feel that due to age, the elderly have fewer and fewer opportunities to travel. Check in to travel, see the world, and visit more scenic spots More necessary.