Climbing the wall - Beijing Trip Part #2

The Great Wall!
Some info about the wall:
History of the wall begins over 2000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty when separate walls were joined together. 180 million cubic metres of rammed earth were used to form the original wall (eee..the guidebook also mentions that legend has it, one of the building materials of the wall were the bones of deceased workers...)

It didn't work too well as a inpenetrable line of defence (sentries were bribed) but it ended up as an elevated highway to transport people and equipment. Beacon towers used smoke signals (made from burning wolf dung) to transmit news of enemies' arrival.

During the Ming Dynasty, the wall was reinforced with slabs of stone and bricks. This took over 100 years!
Here's Miyuki looking cute while standing on a ledge over a cliff at our hotel. We woke up early and spent some time taking pictures around the hotel. Then we went off for breakfast...Lets just say I'm not one for the Chinese buffet breakfast. The egg and steamed bun were good. After that, I avoided the fried stuff and ate as much watermelon (I haven't had watermelon in forever!) as I could. The French tourists at the table beside me must have thought I was getting it for everyone....nope...just myself.




Above: The entrance to the wall at Badaling. Yes, this is the most 'artificial incarnation' of the wall, according to the Lonely Planet because it was restored in the 1950's and 80's.



It is supposedly one of the easier parts of the wall to climb. Well...I felt like I did in Austria at the Ice Caves when I thought I was going to die from climbing and small Austrian children were sprinting by me up the mountain. Here, I was in running shoes and Chinese women were zooming by in heels. Also, it was dangerous because if you got in their way, they would totally take you out with an elbow.



The scenery was really amazing. The wall continued over the hills as far as you could see. I wanted to climb for longer...



Another Lonely Planet fact: 'The myth that the Great Wall is visible with the naked eye from the moom was finally laid to rest in 2003 when China's first astronaut failed to see it from space. The myth is to be edited from Chinese textbooks, where it has cast its spell over generations.'



I love this picture below. Not only have I managed to capture them surveying the wall but check out the super tall guy in yellow running down the steep part!

The wall had the best garbage cans ever! Everyone stared at me when I took photos of them, but come on people...



Above is a picture of the amusement park type contraption that you can take down the wall, if you can't face walking down the steep parts. Lonely Planet says, 'don't take the slide as its a colossal waste of money (unless you like getting winched along in a slow moving plastic vehicle)'. Mateo and his uncle took it. They ended up at some bear park where they saw a bear doing tricks for cucumbers or something. Thank god I didn't witness that.



Steph, this garbage can is for you. GRAFFITO!!!!!!!!!!! All I have to say is, I'm drawing a line.


The best part of this picture was that Miyuki had no idea the kid was sitting on the canon behind her.

I fell in love with this kid for three reasons. 1) her outfit, 2)she was dancing around the entrance, 3) she was so happy about her banana.

After the wall, we jumped into our van and watched in amazement as our driver got the van out of a jammed packed parking lot. We should have known that we were off to another tourist trap, uh I mean store. This one was the ceramic 'factory'/store/restaurant.

The scary thing about these places...everyone spoke Japanese. And the sales clerks followed you around. When I say follow, I mean almost stepped on your heels. I tried to see how far one would follow me around the store. The answer? Aroung the entire warehouse sized store.

Lunch was really early (thank goodness I ate mainly watermelon for breakfast) but it was good dim sum (well all except the one that Shinobu ate and it turned out to be some kind of herbal/unidentified meat filling).


The Ming Tombs (aka The Amazing Ming Tomb Race)

The Ming Tombs are the tombs of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. LP claims, 'the Confucian layout and design may intoxicate erudite visitors but some find the necropolis lifeless and ho-hum.' I enjoyed the park part of the tombs more than the underground part but we didn't spend much time in either. Why, you ask? Because our tourguide was on super speed mode and we were all running to catch up to him.

By this time, we had all realized that he didn't really care about us and often didn't even check if we were all with him. I knew someone one going to get lost (foreshadowing?). I memorized what he was wearing and kept one eye on him at all times.

Below: wait your turn for what? There was a pile of rocks...

I was walking so fast that I didn't have time to zoom in, but this sign read 'luxuriant grassland. please don't trample.' Note the grass.

Guido-san spoke to us in Japanese but Shinobu couldn't understand him as he had the unfortunate habit of leaving off the subject of his sentences. I started taking pictures of signs, telling myself I could read them later and figure out what I had seen.

We went down into the tomb of the emperor Wanli, which was like an underground vault. The only thing I found interesting was the huge marble doors that somehow sealed shut when the vault was closed. You don't want to accidentally lock yourself in.

Wait! Guido-san! Some people are still down in the tomb! Wait!

Run-by photography. Quick, smile damnit!

Below: of course my eyes are closed.



While taking these pictures a fight broke out near the souvenir stand. Apparently, one member of a tour group insulted a member or a rival tour group and they had to be held back by the people around them. Nothing like an almost fight to liven up the tour.


This is a bixi, which is a mythical tortoise-dragon like animal. Purpose?


We naively thought we were going to hotel or to dinner. Instead, we were headed to yet another tourist shop (#3). This one was the tea shop, which I must admit, was the least annoying because we got to see a cool tea demonstration and taste some.


The tea was good but expensive. And seriously, when am I ever going to brew a whole pot of oolong tea? That teeny cup was enough. One of the teas we tasted was supposedly 25 years old. Another was called 'one leaf tea' because you only needed a single leaf to flavour a whole pot.



We headed to our next restaurant, wandered around the nearby shops and then had dinner. Dinner was good. It was at a restaurant where a lot of politicians/'famous' people had eaten. Now I can say I ate dinner at the same restaurant in China as Margaret Thatcher. Or maybe I'll keep that to myself.

Below: Shinobu, Eri, our tour mother and tour brother.

SO HOT! I thought my tongue was going to fall right off into my soup.


Each night there was an optional tour. For approx. $35 you could go to the Chinese opera. That night it ended up being just me, Mateo and Mark. Everyone else wanted to shop/relax/get massages.

The performance was located in a hotel and it was super touristy. Everyone was either Japanese, Australian, French or American but it was still cool. The performers did their make-up in a room beside the stage so we could watch and take pictures.

We saw segments of two operas. The first was called 'The Crossroads' and it was about an innkeeper who tries to kill a guard in the dark. There wasn't so much singing, more cool dance/fight sequences. The second part was 'Stealing Silver in Storage' (I know, sounds sexy, doesn't it). It was about a goddess who steals silver and has to fight the guards and another god. It was amazing. The singing, the music, the fight scenes...I didn't want it to end.


After we were taken to our new hotel. It was a 5 star hotel but I refused to take my shoes off until I went to bed because the carpets were so dirty. I guess a 5 star hotel in Beijing means about a 2 star in Japan. I'm such a hotel/onsen snob.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories from the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden city, Tiananmen Square and the cheesiest kung fu show ever!