While much of the world is going through economic uncertainty, one of the great things about China is that its currency, the Yuan, has remained relatively stable over the past few years. That means China is no more expensive today that it was a few years ago.

What has changed is the country’s willingness not only to open its doors to Western and non-Western visitors but also to help them.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of these changes has been beijing tour operators offering Great Wall of China tours.

While any tour guidebook can give you basic facts and figures, established Beijing tours bring a dimension of knowledge to the experience that cannot be replaced by reading printed pages.

A Great Wall tour will bring home the true significance of perhaps the history’s longest construction project, a fortification work that started in 7th Century BC to keep the feudal lords of the time protected from invaders and continued for another 2,000 years.

A Beijing tour package can give you not only basic facts and figures but also accommodate any particular requests. One often-asked question is, “Which part of the wall should I see?” Not an easy question to answer, given that the wall is over 5,500 miles (8,800 Kilometers) long and stretches across multiple provinces.

While Badaling is the most popular section of the long wall, Mutianyu, Simatai and Jinshanling sections are also easy to see in a day.

The tour industry in China and Beijing in particular, has changed a lot over the years. The country still receives the overwhelming majority of its tourists from Asia, primarily South Korea, while residents of Hong Kong and Macau are also on top of the list. But many tour operators have caught up with the need to attract Western tourists and many tour operators are now staffed with English, French, German speaking operators.

If you want to visit the Great Wall of China –and you should—consider traveling from May to October, when the weather is most cooperative. Bring sunglasses, sun lotion, maybe a hat, and maybe an umbrella. Other than that, the evolving and improving tour operators industry is happy to take care of you!