Start of our Great Wall tripLooking up
Looking up
Further up
A pause
UP
A tomb off the trail
Working our way up
Ming's Tomb
Ming 1436 CE
Threshold to the past and back
Sacred Walk
Sacred Walk
TV building at the Olympic Village
Bird's Nest
Hutang ride
Hutang home
Hutang home
Hutang home
Hutang home
Today, we truly had the experience of a lifetime - we had the chance to climb a section of The Great Wall (Ju Yong Guan section). Just looking up at the wall is quite overwhelming. The section that we cllimbed was a part of the Ming Dynasty construction and then entire Ming
wall is 4000 miles long. The entire wall in its different sections is so long that it would go around the circumference of the earth 1.3 times! It is absolutely mind boggling.
We arrived at an entrance and were told that there were two ways to make the climb - any easy way and a more difficult way. All six of us selected the difficult path as our guide felt that we could do it. Looking up from the base,we could see the steps going up and two watch towers in the distance. At this point, little did we know what we were in for. The steps are very steep and uneven and they go from a couple of inches high to well over a foot high. We climbed up for an hour and must have passed six towers. When we got to the half way point (about an hour's climb), we were the only ones left with our guide and we decided to continue to the next tower so we could see the tower on the top. It was tough going for us but we actually did it. Our guide told us that only about 3 to 4% of tourists of our age make it to this point. We felt that it was an accomplishment but we really couldn't go further. Lenny thought he could go further but I didn't think so. The views were spectacular and we can now understand why they built the wall in this way for defense as it certainly was impenetrable. We were also surprised that the way down was not that easy and Geri was wishing that she had longer legs to maneuver down the steep steps. The pictures above, show some of the views from our climb but we don't really think they do it justice. We knew that our legs would really be sore. Many people were making the climb and it is a very popular thing to do for tourists and also for Chinese locals.
After our climb we stopped at a cloisonne factory which was very interesting. We had lunch nearby and then went on to see the Ming Tombs. These tombs are the burial places of the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. There are 13 tombs in an area that is four times the size of the Forbidden City including Tiananman Square. The largest tomb is for the third Emperor (Zhu Di) who was considered to be one of the good emperors, if not the best. As we entered the area, we stepped over a threshold; women using their right foot first and men their left foot first and saying "we are going from the living people's world to the dead people's world and then we had to reverse it when we left, saying, "We are returning from the dead people's world to the living people's world. We saw a large group of Chinese tourists shouting loudly with excitement when they reentered the living people's world. The actual burial site was in an underground area of a large mountain and it has not yet been opened. They estimate that they will find an area as large as the forbidden city here and they are waiting to develop better technology so they can safely open this area and safe the artifacts.
Another highlight of our day was a visit to a Hutang just outside of the Forbidden City. Hutangs are housing areas that date back hundreds of years. Most of them have been destroyed and replaced by high rise apartments. Those that are left have been designated as historic landmarks and therefore have gained a fair amount of value. Our tour was by rickshaw and we were taken into the old part of the city with its small homes constructed around a central shared courtyard. We visited a privately owned home which has been owned by the same family for the past 73 years and essentially remains as it was from that date. Heating is done by charcoal
stove; water is supplied by an outdoor pump, hot water is provided by a solar system. Three generations live in this one small area. It is hard to believe how poor life is in the hutang and how happy the people seem to be. We don't understand how the property can have such value given the living conditions but we were told that this family could get several million dollars US but choose to remain where they are. We had an opportunity to speak with the woman owner and she shared something of her family history, showing us some family pictures dating back over seventy years.
Dinner was more of the same. We complained about the food this time to our guide stating that we had been eating the exact same meal for lunch and dinner everyday and we asked why we were only being taken to restaurants for tourists and not being given any choice of what to order. He explained that many of their tourists have made the same complaint and then said that the government had required tourist agencies to take their clients to certain restaurants who would prepare these foods to accomodate tourists' tastes. Yuk!
Our day ended with a wonderful massage for both of us in our hotel room that was arranged by our guide. We each had a masseuse who gave us a 1.5 hour body massage as we lay next to eachother on our king sized bed. Lenny had a woman and I had a man; neither of them spoke much English. They originally wanted us to disrobe completely but we stuck to our guns and Lenny wore his underwear and I wore a loose fitting pair of short pajamas. After our long day of climbing and walking, we felt very relaxed. Lenny describes it as feeling like a wet noodle.
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