BEIJING--DAY 2

     We met Jenny and Mr. Fang at 9:00am for our second day of touring Beijing.  We started the day with an hour drive northeast of the city to the Mutianyu section of The Great Wall of China.  The Great Wall is AMAZING!  It is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, and other stuff, and is generally built along an east-west line across the historical northern border of China.  The purpose of the walls was to protect the Chinese Empire against raids by nomadic and warlike peoples.  The walls were first started in the 7^th century BC and continued to be built for another 1000 years.  Some archaeological surveys found that the entire length of the wall with all its branches measures out to be over 13,000 miles long.  Can you imagine that??  Of course over the centuries the wall has not been maintained and prone to rain, erosion,  graffiti, and vandalism.  Parts of it around Beijing have been extensively renovated and preserved for tourist purposes.  There are several sections that are regularly visited by tourists.  We are at the Mutianyu section which winds along high, craggy, mountains that is located about 50 miles northeast of Beijing.  This section is one of the best preserved parts of the Great Wall.  It is built mainly of granite and is approximately 25 feet high and 15 feet wide at the top.  Originally built in the mid 6^th century, it was rebuilt in 1569 and until today most parts are well preserved.  The Great Wall is also said to be the longest cemetery as the workers who died while constructing it were buried inside the wall.  This is one of the “seven wonders of the world”!

                                             Remember, clicking on photo will enlarge it.

                                       Jenny is our tour guide for three days in Beijing.

                                        Souvenir stands line way to cable car to Great Wall

                                                  Took cable car up to the Great Wall

                                                                      WOW!

                                                            Watch tower on wall

     On the way back to our car, souvenir stands lined the way and the owners were very persistent.  To get you to stop they would say, “T-shirt $1” or “2 T-shirts for $1”.  Jenny told us they would cost us more.  We did stop at one place selling little snuff bottles.  The man would write your name inside the bottle with a very small brush.  He wanted $8 each but I paid him $3.

                                                 

                                                     Man is writing name on inside of snuff bottle.

     Now we headed through a winding mountain road for an hour to the northwest to visit the Ming Tombs.  Along the way we stopped at a “very” local restaurant for lunch.  Had Jenny not taken other tour folks here, I would never have eaten the food.  The specialty here was fish.  They caught the fish with a net, clubbed it, then took it to kitchen.  The fish pens were right in front of the restaurant and you watched all this.  I tried a bottle of Chinese beer.  It was pretty good as was the fish.  We didn’t get sick later. 

                                            The VERY local restaurant we had lunch at

                                                            Clubbing our fish 

                                                               Chinese beer was not bad.

                                                        The fish was spicy but good.

     Thirteen of the sixteen Ming Emperors were buried in tombs in an area 50 miles northwest of Beijing.  Only 3 of the tombs are open now to the public.  We visited the Chang Tomb.  He was the 3^rd Ming Emperor.  It was a large complex with buildings, one of which is now a museum.  The actual burial tomb was in back and was a HUGE mound probably 5 acres in size.  The Emperor and all his possessions are buried deep under it.

                                 Raised step at entrance to ALL places to keep evil spirits out.

     We arrived back at the hotel at 4:30.  We had 7:30 dinner reservations at a famous Peking duck restaurant (Wuan Ju De) only about a 5 minute walk from the hotel.  Neither of us cared much for the dinner.

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