Beijing pt. 3: The Wall & Ming Dynasty Tombs

After staying up until 2:30am to watch my beloved 49ers stomp the Jets, I had to be up quite early to start our Great Wall day tour. At 6:30a our bus picked up Craig and myself and we were off to the wall. I was very excited to see the wall,  but I was quite anxious because we did not get a chance to have coffee or breakfast before leaving the hostel. I already am not the best of hikers (As my friends can tell you from our Julian hike!), so climbing the great wall without breakfast and about 4hrs of sleep had me a little nervous

One piece of history about the Great Wall of China that I didn't know that kind of about is that the touristy parts of the wall near Beijing have been reconstructed previously in the 1980s. Meaning most of the wall people see and walk on is not as old as you might think. However, the structure itself is amazing and well worth the trip. As they say in China, "You haven't seen China until you visit the wall."

After about an hour and a half ride, we arrived at the wall. We rode a rickety Chinese chair lift to the top, which had a great view of the mountains in the surrounding area. Once you reach the top, you can go to either the right or the left just about as long as you would like to walk it. We decided to go to the right for our journey. It was not the easiest climb to make on an empty stomach, but we had a great time taking pictures and taking in all the scenery. As we reached the limits of the tourist side of the wall, there was a sign that said "No tourists past this point." Naturally, my adventurous roommate took that as an opportunity to explore further. I cautiously followed my friend and the singing Chinese voice we could hear in the distance. This part of the wall was overgrown and definitely not part of the most recent reconstruction  After almost getting killed by a spider that looked like must have had a role in the newest Spider Man film, we finally made it to the decaying watch tower where we met singing Chinese stranger and his family. The family surprisingly spoke very good English and proceeded to tell us about their lives and offered me a wild flower bouquet his wife had just picked. In the end, was happy Craig dragged me past the tourist limit because we were able to see some cool views of the wall and meet some great people. We also found some original parts of the wall that we were able to take home.

Starting to remember my Julian hike here

Trying to give my cool Castro pose

Thanks flower lady!!

Beers for breakfast!!

The best part about the wall would have to be the way down. You have 2 choices. Either the boring, slow, old people chair lift OR the too fast, too furious, toboggan sled ride!! It is like a mini roller coaster/ go cart device on a track that you get to control the speed making for a great adrenaline rush down. I would by another ticket up just to go back down on it.

MaoBama. Hilarious ironic t-shirt at the wall I had to buy. "Says service to the people"

After a tasty Chinese lunch and a jade museum stop, our second half of the bus tour took us to the Ming Dynasty Tombs. Being the closed off American that I am, before coming here I had no idea this burial site even existed in China. The Ming Dynasty Tombs are 13 tombs spread with the principles of Feng Shui throughout the southern slope of Tianshou Mountain. There is only one available to go inside and see. For the most part, the inside of this tomb was kind of boring. There is nothing grand about it except that the marble is over 500 years old, but the inside is very plain. Also there were a few artifacts to see with money thrown at them (for good luck), but most of the burial pieces were destroyed or poorly maintained during the "cultural revolution" in the 1960s and 1970s under Moa Tse Tung. The outside was pretty cool, with some old marble staircases and monuments. You could also see some of the other tombs on higher points of the mountain off in the distance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty_Tombs

Treasure Boxes/ All the treasures are gone due to poor maintenance and excavation back in the day.

Burial Throne with money on it. Chinese throw money on for good luck

500 year old marble pillar.

Our long day of climbing mountains and walking down into tombs, the tour finished with a free foot massage! Somehow I ended up with some dude masseuse while Craig lucked out with the cute Chinese girl, but either way my feet felt like I was walking on clouds by the end of it. Definitely a nice treat to end the tour!

We finished the day with another adventurous evening in Sanlitun!