{"id":433,"date":"2013-09-10T16:32:21","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T09:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=433"},"modified":"2013-09-10T16:32:21","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T09:32:21","slug":"the-great-wall-and-much-more-9813","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=433","title":{"rendered":"The Great Wall (and much more) 9\/8\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re finally going to visit The Great Wall.\u00a0 The weather has cooled enough so that it should be comfortable.\u00a0 The bus picks us up at 7:45 and we\u2019re off, headed out of Beijing.\u00a0 This is our first trip out of town and I\u2019m curious about the countryside.\u00a0 There is agriculture everywhere.\u00a0 I see lots of corn, and many orchards.\u00a0 It\u2019s very green and really relaxing.\u00a0 As we start up into the hills\/mountains, it reminds me of the drive in New Mexico, through the Ruidoso area, or from Tres Ritos to Taos.<\/p>\n

We arrive at the base of the chairlift that provides access to the top of the wall.\u00a0 Not only is there a wall, but it\u2019s built on top of the mountains.\u00a0 We catch the chairlift (like a ski chairlift) at 9:00 when it opens.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t much of a crowd.\u00a0 We\u2019re at Mutianyu, one of the two main areas to visit The Wall.\u00a0 This site is further out of Beijing, and the crowds are smaller.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s gorgeous!\u00a0 The weather is cool and comfortable, around 68F.\u00a0 We can see for a really good distance.\u00a0 It is a little foggy, due to the 98% humidity. \u00a0We have two hours to walk the area.\u00a0 I\u2019ll let the pictures do the talking.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> \"The<\/a> \"The<\/a> \"The<\/a> \"The<\/a> \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

There are two routes down, the chairlift, or the toboggan.\u00a0 We choose the toboggan, and it\u2019s a blast.\u00a0 Judy is ready to pay to ride back to top, so she can ride the toboggan back down.\u00a0 We walk around the lower area, dodging aggressive \u201chawkers\u201d trying to sell \u201cI Climbed the Great Wall\u201d t-shirts, as well as many other valuable trinkets. They don\u2019t take no for an answer!<\/p>\n

\"Tobaggan3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Toboggan4\"<\/a> \"Toboggan2\"<\/a> \"Toboggan1\"<\/a> \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

We get back on the bus and leave around 11:00, headed for the Ming Tombs.\u00a0 It\u2019s about an hour drive, weaving up and down narrow mountain roads.\u00a0 There are occasional small towns, and the road is so close to the homes, you can look in the windows as we drive by.<\/p>\n

We are visiting one of the Ming Tombs, the resting place of the 13th<\/sup> emperor of the Ming Dynasty.\u00a0 All but 3 of the 16 Ming emperors have a \u201cTomb\u201d area.\u00a0 Our visit is to the only one with actual access below ground, into the tomb itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s a huge area, cavernous below, and acres & acres above ground, just for this one emperor.\u00a0 The whole region is one tomb site after another.<\/p>\n

\"Ming<\/a> \"Ming<\/a> \"Ming<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re starving, and lunch is next on the agenda.\u00a0 We pull into a parking lot in front of a very large plain building.\u00a0 It\u2019s the government Jade Factory.\u00a0 Apparently, every tour company is required to bring its\u2019 \u201cGreat Wall\u201d visitors through the Jade Factory.\u00a0 We have a really good meal on the 2nd<\/sup> floor, and then downstairs for some demonstrations of jade carving, etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s truly interesting, and the building is HUGE!\u00a0 There is jewelry and carvings everywhere.\u00a0 It\u2019s like it\u2019s the Costco of Jade.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m becoming a little \u201cjaded\u201d with history (sorry) as we head back into Beijing.\u00a0 We drive by the Olympic area.\u00a0 I take a few photos, but we\u2019re planning on visiting more next weekend, so I\u2019m bound to have some better shots.\u00a0 We arrive at a traditional Tea House for some instruction on the Chinese Tea Ceremony, and sampling of several teas.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun, and a nice change from all the ancient sites we\u2019ve been seeing.\u00a0 When the bus drops us off at home, it\u2019s 5:00 pm and we\u2019re \u201cbushed\u201d, but the story doesn\u2019t end here.<\/p>\n

\"Olympics.Water<\/a>

The Water Cube, Olympics<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Olympics.The<\/a>

The Birdcage Olympic Stadium<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tea<\/a> \"Tea<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Judy\u2019s BISS friend, Deb and husband Graham text us about visiting a Chinese BBQ just outside the gates of our apartment complex.\u00a0 We really enjoyed our food last weekend, so we\u2019re \u201cgame\u201d to find a similar spot close by.\u00a0 They meet us at the apartment gates and it\u2019s right across the alley\/street.\u00a0 The food is great!\u00a0 They both ordered their food \u201chot\u201d, as in spicy, and we can\u2019t be outdone (we did live in New Mexico for 25 years), so it\u2019s \u201chot\u201d for us, also.\u00a0 And boy, is it HOT!!!!\u00a0 There were chicken, beef, and lamb choices on the meats (and a few other meat parts we weren\u2019t so interested in).\u00a0 There were lots of vegetables.\u00a0 It was all very good, and very spicy<\/span>. \u00a0The bill totaled $13 equivalent, including drinks, for all four of us. \u00a0Tomorrow will be an interesting day for our stomachs. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll be less inclined next time for the \u201ciron stomach\u201d challenge.<\/p>\n

\"BBQ<\/a> \"BBQ<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"BBQ<\/a> \"BBQ<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"BBQ<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to the apartment and the \u201ccrash\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s 8:00 and I\u2019m not long for this world.\u00a0 Judy has a few loose ends to tie up to be ready for school, but teaching part-time has its\u2019 advantages.\u00a0 One of those is that I have several days<\/span> to tie up my loose ends before class.\u00a0 Judy starts talking to me\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..zzzz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re finally going to visit The Great Wall.\u00a0 The weather has cooled enough so that it should be comfortable.\u00a0 The bus picks us up at 7:45 and we\u2019re off, headed out of Beijing.\u00a0 This is our first trip out of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}