The Great Wall
September 03, 2006

The Thirteen Ming Tombs.

Our first stop today was The Thirteen Ming Tombs.  It's a imperial burial ground where emperors, empresses, concubines and even a eunuch were buried.  We also walked deep underground to an underground burial palace called Dingling.

There are thirteen imperial tombs of the Ming Dynasty scattered over an area of forty square kilometers in Changping District
to the northwest of Beijing. Construction of the necropolis spanned more than two hundred years,
almost throughout the entire Ming Dynasty: The first tomb was built in 1409, and the last one in 1644.

Next up was the Beijing Jade Factory.  China is well known for it's variety and exceptional quality jade so it was interesting to see the process of designing and constructing jade pieces.  We also walked around a very large store that was full of numerous works made of jade.  Afterwards, we had some lunch where the 65 year old grandfather made me drink again.  Except this time it wasn't Chinese beer.  It was some EXTREMELY strong Chinese liquor.  It's much stronger than Korean soju and maybe just as strong as Tennessee moonshine, but it's been quite a while since I've tried grease lightning.

The use of carved jade has been a integral part of Chinese society for more than 6,000 years, playing significant roles in Chinese
politics, economics, philosophy, and religion. Considered the sacred stone of China, the use of jade spans all ranks and classes and
holds spiritual as well as commercial values. To the ancient Chinese, it embodied qualities of nobility, perfection, constancy
and immortality; a symbolic link between man and the spiritual world..

The Great Wall of China.

This was the main reason I wanted to visit China.  It's one of the world's greatest wonders!  The Great Wall was quite a site and a wonderful thing to experience.  It was actually smaller than I had imagined though.  It's the worlds longest man made structure, so not necessarily in length of course (it stretches about 4,000 miles), but in width.  It seems to be about 6 people wide.  But to imagine how far it stretches and the fact that it was build so long ago (it began over 2,000 years ago), and how many lives were lost building it, it's still an amazing event of mankind.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was my favorite part of the whole trip.

The Great Wall of China, also known in China as the Great Wall of 10,000, is an ancient Chinese fortification built from the end of the 14th century until the beginning of the 17th century, during the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect China from raids by the Mongols and Turkic tribes. It was preceded by several walls built since the 3rd century BC against the raids of nomadic tribes coming from areas now in modern day Mongolia and Manchuria.The Wall stretches over a formidable 6,350 km (3,946 miles), from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Gulf in the east, at the limit between China proper and Manchuria, to Lop Nur in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The butt of a dragon.

I'm actually not sure where the heck we went next because I was still mesmerized by The Great Wall.  We ended up at a place where we walked into the mouth of a dragon where his body ended up being the inside of a mountain and I assume we walked out of his butt.  This took us through a mountain and down into a ravine where we took a boat ride.  My camera's battery died shortly after the beginning of the ride but the only thing that I wish I had taken a picture of was a tightrope way up above the river where 2 acrobats dangled on a bicycle.  China has some amazing acrobats!

What I learned today about Korea:  1)  I have a scar from fighting a secret Navy  Seal battle in China.