Beijing - Day 2 - Ming Tombs and Great Wall
Yesterday was day two of my adventure. This was a day totally on my own in Beijing, I decided that since I am so close, that I must see the Great Wall of China. I made my way to Tianamen Square where there is a tourist office that offers day trips to these places. I booked myself a day tour for 135 Yuan (about $18). This included bus, lunch, and tour guide! Amazing. Now the thing to keep in mind as you read this, is that these are tours for Chinese people wanting to see their own country. I was the only Westerner on my bus. Not so bad if anyone spoke English. As it was, nobody did. Okay, one lady spoke a little, but not very much. My Mandarin is about as good as my Swahili (which means I can’t say one word of it). So it was an adventure.
We started off going to a jade factory. Ahh, it is very clear now, they drop you first off at a shopping place so you can buy things. This is how the trip is so cheap! You get to see how jade is carved and then there is about 3 showrooms you have to pass buy and dozens of salespeople before you can exit the building. If that isn’t enough, when you get outside there are aggressive street peddlers selling all sorts of trinkets. I ended up buy a “great wall” statuette for 1 yuan (about 13 cents) just to get rid of them.
We moved on to another place right next door to have lunch. Lunch was a pretty typical Chinese fare with noodles, rice, veggies and a bit of chicken.
After lunch, we went to the Ming Tombs. These are a series of underground tombs for the emperors who ruled during the Ming Dynasty (about the 1400’s). Exploring these tombs was interesting, but what I found most interesting was the way the grounds were situated. Yes, when you understand Feng Shui, you look at things a bit differently. I was less interested in the tomb than the way the tomb was laid out. This is from Yin House Feng Shui. The basics are that you want a mountain behind you to wrap around you like an arm chair, then you want a beautiful space in front (called the ming tong - or bright hall). Then at the ming tong, you want a little rise in front. Water should be clean and flowing. This is what I saw at the grounds of this tomb. Below is a photo of a mock-up of the grounds from the museum.
You will notice the river to the right of the tomb. There is also the mountain in the back and the open space to the front. What it doesn’t show you is the large mountains behind the whole area protecting the tomb. The qi was very peaceful and there was a balance of light and dark. It was a good site.
As we walked to the tomb entrance, there were a lot of signs that were warning you in Chinese and English about various things. No Smoking, No explosives, and my favorite “Luxuriant Grasslands Please do not Trample.” Now look at the photo…
As an aside, there have been many examples of funny English expressions here. Someone said that they just use a web site translator for this stuff. Other examples I have seen:
A tobacco store - “Rude Tobacco”
A product - “Naked Oats”
Here is another sign from the Tomb grounds:
“Cherish the Cultural Relic, please don’t scribble” So then, should use my best penmanship when applying graffiti?
or
“No Smoking. Fireproofing Caution” ?? Okay whatever… I don’t smoke anyway, so no worries…
Okay, I commend they’re attempts at bringing English into the signage. In fact, all the street signs are now bi-lingual, Chinese and English. This is in preparations for the 2008 Olympics. There is such a movement towards having everything internationalized. Plus there is a real attempt at getting people to learn English. More so than I first realized. Most people now take English in school. How many of our schools teach Mandarin? (Mine surely didn’t…)
Back to the tour…
We descended into the tomb. It was a very large underground complex. It was creepy thinking that this was not only a burial chamber for the emperor, but as the large stone doors attested, they also buried servants and maids and others along with the emperor, but while he was dead, they were not!
Afterwards, we loaded back up on the bus and headed towards the Great Wall. As we were driving I was thinking about Master Sang’s lecture from the first AFSI trip about mountain forms. Thinking about Yang Dragons and Yin Dragons. Here is a photo I took from the bus of a Yang Dragon mountain form.
After a while, we finally made it to the Great Wall. This was the Badaling section of the wall which was very touristy, but it still was very interesting. We stood in line to get onto a roller-coaster sort of car that took you way up the hillside to the wall. Then we had to hike up the wall. The couple I was with (the lady with broken English) suggested we hike to the highest point. I was game, but I knew my legs were going to hurt. The steps were uneven and they were worn from millions of feet stepping on them continuously. It was rather dangerous and some sections were without steps and very steep. It took more than an hour to hike to the top. It didn’t help that the wind was furiously blowing either. In the picture below, you can get an idea. It was to the highest point that we hiked.
As I was hiking, I was thinking of the workmanship that had to go into building this wall. It is also one of the largest grave sites as so many people died building the wall and many are buried in the wall. Quite a testament as it is one of the manmade features that can be seen from space. Here is the final picture from the wall.
I did make it all the way to the top. My muscles were screaming and the thought of going down was terrible, but I made it. All I wanted after the hike and the wind was a nice hot bath! ( … and my hotel only has a shower!)
After a long and somewhat eventful bus ride (the driver was stopped and got a ticket outside the Forbidden City area of Beijing), we made it back. I grabbed a bite of food at that famous Chinese eatery, KFC, and headed home. A great day that I will always remember!
More tomorrow…
