Forbidden City, Beijing

To the east of the Great Wall at Ba Da Ling and 70 kilometers from the city is this restored section of the Great Wall. This three-kilometer stretch has 25 beacon towers, watch towers and lodging houses. Historically, the construction here required the largest number of laborers to construct and produced work of extremely high quality. It requires a more rigorous climb than Ba Da Ling, but the views are more striking and there are cable cars to take visitors to the top and the option of an exhilarating toboggan ride back down.