Beijing Hotels
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Beijing Day 2
Entry 5 of 23 | show all | print this entry |
This is Day 2 in Beijing. It seems like a whirlwind time here already. It is all coming and going so quickly. We have seen and done so much. Our guide is "Scott" who is chinese, and we have a "professional" driver to take us places. His name is Mr Chung. Today we visited the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China. It is so nice to have a driver and guide. We woke upt to a sunny and blue sky today. So much different than Day 1 which was smoggy/cloudy. It took us over 1.5 hours to get out to the Ming tombs from Beijing. I don't know how others would get around without the driver/guide. Beijing is so large that it seems to take forever to get anywhere. After the drive which included winding and narrow road we arrived at the Ming Tombs. This is where many of the rulers of China are buried and have special houses built for them. Lots beautiful buildings with bright colors. Anything that was associated with a ruler has yellow included in the roof of the building. But there are so many reds, blues, greens and other colors on all the buildings. They are beautiful to say the least. We also walked a long route that had many statues of different animals. Not many people here since it is in a area that is not close to the city. We passed through many villages and saw things like family houses, bike carts carrying all kinds of stuff, and people cutting limbs from trees to use for firewood in their homes.
After we left the Ming Tombs we stopped for lunch at the "Friendship Store". This is eccentially a state run sovenir store, but also has a nice restaurant. We were able to see them making cloisoinne pottery. We took the back room tour and saw were they laid on the wire to separate the colors, colors applied, where the pots etc are baked. Seems very crude but very efficient. So much hand work and effort. None is done by machine!
After we left the Tombs we headed for the long awaited Great Wall of China. In order to get up to the wall after arriving at the parking lot we had to walk through a sections that had many small "shops" of hawkers of sovenirs. Everything from hats with flaps and red star on the front to "I climbed the Great Wall of China" T-shirts (of course I bought one). The we rode a tram up to the wall area. The tram was not crowded, and pretty steep. Once we got to the top we could see lots of the wall in two directions. It was sooo cool. This area of the wall is not one of the most popular tourist sections of the wall. Here there were much less people and could even get pictures of on one else walking on the wall. I don't know how many pictures I took, but is was many I'm sure! Later in the spring it would be much more beautiful since there are many trees in this area, but this time of year there are just the bear limbs. I just cannot tell you how impressive it all was. There was more wall than we could cover in the time we spent there. Many sections were very steep with steps no more that a couple of itches high where other places the steps might be 2 feet high. Most of these walls have been reconstructed so we weren't walking on the "original" wall that would have been centuries old. There was one section quite a distance away where we would not have been allowed to walk any further because of it not being maintained.
Upon returning back down on the tram we again walked through the sovenir hawkers where I found that I could have gotten my shirt much cheaper, as little as two T-shirts for a dollar. They also had camel rides (real camels) and many fruit stands of a lot of things we recognised, but many that we didn't. Kathy tried a few, but decided not to buy any for our trip back to the city.
The return trip took almost 2.5 hours of travel time. We arrived back in Beijing about rush hour time. While the lanes of travel are well marked our driver would spend all his time jumping back and forth between lanes trying to see if he could find one that moved faster. He would signal with his blinkers, but basically just cut off the person in back of him. So many times we would have reached out the window with half your arm and easily touched the vehicle next to you. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of road rage here, but "polite" honks to let the person know you are coming over or to warn the person in front of you that they are getting too close. Only once did we see someone yelling at our driver and it was a bus! I have to say I was surpised to see that we never bumped into someone else. Where in Oregon, by law the pedestrian has the right of way, here the pedestrian must beware. They often just stop between lanes and wait for a car to pass before they continue on. Bicycles are the same way. He who has the biggest vehicle definately wins here!
We were both so worn out at the end of the day that I didn't even want to consider going out for dinner. Kathy found a small store next to the hotel and got an ice cream bar for dinner. I fell asleep very early, but of course I woke up early the next morning. Ha!
We will add more tomorrow for Day 1 in Beijing and Day 3. Good night for now!
Latest Comments (3)
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Tastes like chicken??? (reply)
Mar 14, 2008 22:31 EST by lee_smith
Wow...you two could go on that Extreme Food TV show. That guy is always eating innards, bugs and things that have eyes looking at you. Your trip sounds so very interesting and I agree with KelBell that our Indonesia trip was great preparation. This weekend I will be packing my bag for Bali. Can't wait to see you in Ubud. I bet you will be EXHAUSTED! Well, Taman Rahasia is the perfect place to re... show all
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Beavers ate Duck? (reply)
Mar 14, 2008 13:50 EST by sharondick
Okay Jack, so were you smiling as they cut up the duck? Off comes the head and the beak - quite a little ceremony for the Beaver in you! So excited to read your postings. I'm printing them off and sending them to Mom and Dad so they know what you two are doing. Keep those postings coming! Sharon
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Great Wall (reply)
Mar 14, 2008 12:31 EST by klangdon
Your trip sounds amazing so far! How cool is it that you guys walked the Great Wall? And it sounds like the Indy trip last year really prepped you for life in a big city. There's nothing like feeling certain you're going to run into the car beside you! :) Keep up to posts. It's fantastic to read what you're up to. Love you, K
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