The Great Wall

The second destination today was the Great Wall of China.  At one time, the Great Wall stretch for over 10,000 km and was built to prevent invasion from the north by the Mongols.  Although it was a rainly and foggy morning, we braved the wall to make our ascent to the highest watch tower.

This portion of the wall is called the Juyongguan Pass and is near Badaling, the most popular destination for visitors to the great wall.  The wall climbs over a 1100 feet in elevation at this point in just over one-half mile.  This represents an average grade of over 40%.  The ascent consisted of steps, inclines and periodic watch towers.

Looking back from the second watch tower, you can get an idea of just how steeping the wall rises at this point from the river valley below.

The highest watch tower on this point on the wall is being defending by Dennis, Steven, and Timothy.

The views from the top were simply incredible; we could only wish that the weather had been a bit clearer.

 

Two hours was not enough time to explore a great deal of the wall.  If you come, you should plan on spending at least a day here exploring different aspects of the wall.

Ming Tombs

The third and final day of our excursions in Beijing took us to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China.  The tombs are a large complex of many tombs in one area.  The main tomb is Emperor Yongle's Tomb located centrally in the complex.  He was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the early 1400's.

Inside the main structure was a museum that contained replicas of many of the items found in the tomb.  The centerpiece of the museum was a large statue of the emperor sitting on his throne.  

The back of the statue had the dragon, which represents the emperor.

On the centerline from the gate to the tombs and mausoleum is the Gate on the Threshold of Stars.  Only the emperor could pass through this gate towards the mausoleum, and then only after he has died.  It is considered the threshold from one realm (the world) to another (heaven).  However, passing through it on the way back (by the living) is considered to bring good luck.

Many of the trees at the tombs are over 300 years old.  This tree is the oldest tree on the site, and now needs to be supported to keep it up.

Beijing Chaonyang Theater

By Jill Reinhard

On Monday night, we went to the Beijing Chaonyang Theater to watch the Flying Acrobatics Show.  The feats perfomed were amazing!  I've never seen anything like that in my life.  The colors, the costumes, the laser, the live birds took the p erformance to a new unexpected level.  I loved the show so much, I bought a DVD.  If you haven't already seen a spectacle like this, it's a must see act at least once once in a lifetime.

Hutong Tour

The final stop on today's adventure was a tour of a Hutong.  The word Hutong comes from Mongolian which means "well" for water.  Now, the word is used to identify the traditional neighborhoods of the Chinese cities. 

In Beijing, many of these neighborhoods have been replaced by modern high-rise buildings.  However, the Chinese government is now making an effort to preserve a number of these neighborhoods.  Today we got to tour the one that surrounds the Beijing Bell Tower.  This is a high desirable neighbors due to its location near this tower.

Our tour started with a lunch in a typical Hutong home.  Our host, Mrs. Chen, made a wonderful meal that included dumplings, rice, garlic stalks with egg, chicken wings, fried noodles, pork, and a number of other dishes.  The other two men were our guides for this trip, Robin and Andy.

After lunch, we toured the Hutong by pedal rickshaw. 

At one point in the trip, I switched places with the driver and had my turn at pedaling the rickshaw.

Halfway through the trip we stopped to visit a factory that made fine porcelain and pottery.  This is the master potter creating a vase.

Everyone had a very enjoyable time visiting the Hutong.

Panda Bears at the Beijing Zoo

Our second stop for the day was the Beijing Zoo to see the Panda Bears.  Panda bears are primarily from the Sichuan province where the earthquake occurred three weeks ago.  While the panda bears at the breeding center near the epicenter all survived  the quake, their habitat and house suffered some damage.  A few of the pandas were transferred to the Beijing Zoo to join those pandas that were already here. 

 

 

Of course, any zoo would not be complete without the safety and warning signs.  Here are the ones that were posted around the panda bears.

Yonghe Lama Temple

Monday brought us our second day of sightseeing in Beijing.  We are getting the whirlwind tour of many places in Beijing; many of these places could be a whole day in themselves to explore.  What this will let us know is what to spend more time on during the next trip to China.

Our first stop this morning was the Yonghe Lama Temple.  This is the largest temple in Beijing and was built in 1694.  The temple is noted for being the residence of Yongzheng, who was the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  It also contains the largest wooden Buddha in the world that is carved our of a single piece of wood.  The sandlewood Buddha is over 16m tall and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.  As photographs could not be taken inside the buildings, I cannot show you a picture of the Buddha.

This fountain represents the seven levels of hell on the bottom just above the water.  Above that is the earth, the constellations, and on the top the house of heaven. 

The temple is currently under renovation, as the rest of China also seems to be.

Tiannamen Square

After getting back to the hotel, we decided to take a walk over to Tiannamen Square, which is located by the front gate to the Forbidden City.  About a 20 minute walk through some streets in China brought us to the square along with a large number of  other people.  It was a very popular day throughout all the places that we visited:  Nice weather on a Sunday seems to bring the people out.