The Great Wall and Ming Tomb
Spirit Walk and Ming Tomb
12/23, Day 3: Leave to go to Great Wall. It’s snowing and they’re not sure if road will be open. First we go to cloisonné factory and then the Ming Tomb (for some emperor) that hasn’t been unearthed yet so there’s temples and then a huge mound in a circle. The whole site is very Feng Shui. It is at least 1000 yrs old but I forgot how old exactly. First we walked down a long walkway with carved stone animals from tigers to elephants (life sized)- one standing and one kneeling/sitting for each kind of animal. The walk was very nice and peaceful and there was lots of snow. Some of us played in the snow. The animals were the entryway to the tomb but the whole area for it spanned many square miles. The fog and snow made everything ethereal.
Then we ate lunch (or maybe before) at a restaurant/Friendship store. They served this alcohol that was 50%+ alcohol- nasty stuff. I think a bunch of people got tipsy. While waiting to leave a whole bunch of us huddled together and went “Ooooooh” like a chant to keep warm at the entranceway. This was International Incident #1.
The Great Wall in snow
More Wall and posing for pictures.
Finally we head to Great Wall. We couldn’t go to the part where most tourist go due to weather but we went to a part in the beginning of the mountains. It was amazing. Again it was foggy and snowy and starting to get dark. The part of the wall we went up was super steep and slippery with really tall steps. Lots of people were there (Asians and Westerners) and lots were slipping and falling so people were helping each other out. The wall was amazing- snaking along mountain range which was quite steep and craggy- like Sandias. We went up a ways to a small fortress building in the wall (not sure what they’re called) where E was making warrior/evil spirit faces. There were scary tunnel-like stairs to get to the top of it. RP and RT (in t-shirt) did 40 moves Tai Chi but I missed most of it. Sifu was coming up as we were going down since it was near time to leave but since he was coming up anyway we followed him back up. I got a total high from the climb and coming back down. After I had that warm exhausted feeling you get after a really good day skiing but it was even better since it was the Great Wall.
That night a few of us wanted to go to a club so someone found some in a guide book. We ended up going to one called Club J.J. There were 13 of us on one of the tour buses. It was pretty full (no caucasians) and was playing typical techno music that was pretty good mostly. We danced like we usually do (large and a bit crazy) and I think we educated or at least amused quite a few people in the mean time. They may have learned a bit of how Americans dance- although I don’t know that we dance like most Americans. C got on a podium during some sickly sweet pop song and was dancing like a mad fool. At one point 4 women and 4 men dressed in white got on stage and did a dance to Prince’s Kiss. The people in the club stood and watched without moving. Then we had to leave before the bus turned into a pumpkin.
Back to Beijing On to Heaven and flying China Air