Old Dragon Head
At Shanhaiguan, the Great Wall juts out into the sea. The original wall is long gone, but an extensive rebuilt section has been put up. Bus 25 will take you there for ¥1. To get onto the wall and into an area with several rebuilt halls, you need to buy a ticket for Y50. If you're content with seeing the wall hit the sea from the other side, turn left outside the entrance and follow the road making a right turn, going through the wall and to the beach. Walk about 200m along the beach to get to the end of the wall. A fence has been put up preventing you to get closer than about 50m to the wall, however, it may be possible to go through a hole in or under the fence. Judging by its appearance, several such holes have been patched in the past, but at the time of writing Sept 2010 there is still one there. Note that passing the fence will not lead you to the paid area, the wall itself blocks you off from that. At low tide it is allegedly possible to walk around the end of the wall and enter the paid area without a ticket. If you want to do this, make sure you understand the risk - if you get caught, you can be fined several times the admission fee.
Many of Shanhaiguan's attractions have been extensively restored or rebuilt in the 1980s. This includes most of the city wall as well as the Great Wall going towards the sea. The other side of the wall, going up the mountains, has been partly restored but some parts remain in their original, crumbling state.
Much of the "old" town, especially along the main north-south road, has been completely reconstructed in 2008/09. Several city blocks have been remade into a faux-old Chinese city that, despite the lack of history, is quite pleasant to walk through. Most of it, however, is still largely uninhabited and quite like a ghost town. Especially in the evening after sunset, with the tourists gone, you will find even the main streets almost deserted.