Great Wall
Fortunately Neil was feeling a little better the next day as we had booked a tour bus out to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. Even though I’m not a huge tour fan, the tour group leader was pretty entertaining and it was an easy way to get out and see the Wall. Fortunately for us we were the last people to be picked up at 9am (the poor first people had been picked up at 7!) so at least we didn’t have to sit through too much Beijing early morning traffic.We headed out north to the first stop, the Ming Tombs. Not quite what we what we were expected, but semi-interesting none-the less, as the main tomb is of Zhu Di, a prominent Ming Emporor who you may of heard about if you have watched the National Geographic Special on the Adventures of Zheung Hue (recommended), or have read the book 1421: The Year China the Chinese Discovered the World. It’s a very interesting piece of history which shows that huge Chinese boats sailed around a lot of the world back in 1400s with very advanced technology for the time. However, due to some decent laws prohibiting the excavation of any of the Ming Tombs until technology can preserve them better (a couple of tombs were recently excavated whereby many of the delicate writings, paper and buried materials quickly were destroyed when exposed), people are unable to actually visit the tombs themselves. Instead we saw a large temple building with some of the preserved artifacts, and the tomb stone of Zhu Di.
Zhu Di himself inside a large temple
The tombstone of Zhu Di - we were surprised to see this man bowing to an Emperor from some 600 years ago!
The tombstone of Zhu Di - we were surprised to see this man bowing to an Emperor from some 600 years ago!
Of course, next on our stop was to the jade factory with over-priced jade materials. Impressive however was the huge jade boats and carvings on display. We saw how jade was carved, how to tell the difference between real and fake jade (personally, I don’t mind fake things too much as I’m a bit of a stinge) and heard the romantic story of jade bracelets – the Chinese equivalent of the wedding ring. It really made me want to buy some jade and I looked around for some rings like the one Melissa had bought me – but fortunately I guess the prices were all too much for what I was willing to spend (did I mention being a stinge!!)
Next was lunch at the ‘Friendship Store’ which conveniently had a huge array of touristy items available for purchase. Fortunately the food was pretty decent and we (well I – Neil was nursing his sore stomach a little) pigged out again. We washed the lunch down with some Mai Tan, or Chinese rice wine which smells like mentholated spirits and tasted like paint stripper. But at least it warmed us up!!
Finally we were off to the Great Wall – another 20 minutes or so away through some barren, frozen landscape. Approaching the ‘Badaling’ section of the Great Wall we were able to see parts of it on the hillsides of the approach. Pretty impressive. We arrived and walked past tourist stalls where we started to ascend the Wall. It was amazing. We could see parts of the wall stretching into the distance even despite the foggy conditions.
Starting to climb the wall - see it in the distance
We headed to the left – the steeper section, but apparently the way with the more impressive views. Walking along the wall was pretty amazing. Every few steps you could see a different view of the wall in front of you, behind you and into the distance.
Again - you may just be able to make out the wall in the distance. An amazing photo really because there are no people in it! Just the bin. . .
An older, unrestored part of the wall contrasts starkly with the great work done restoring the wall.
An older, unrestored part of the wall contrasts starkly with the great work done restoring the wall.
The wall stretches approximately 6,700 kilometers. There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers that were used to house troops, store weapons and send signals in case enemies were seen approaching. Smoke signals were used in the day and fires were lit at night to communicate with other military outposts along the wall. The views from all along the wall are really amazing.
Walking down we had to pass through this group of police cadets (?) getting their photo taken. An impressive site really.
While waiting to leave on the bus, a man and his camel happened to stroll down the main street.
Amazing stuff. We arrived back in Beijing tired, but happy.
posted by batik billy @ 3:45 pm
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