The Great Wall of China

Location: Beijing, the Ming Tombs, and the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall, China

Tuesday morning, we made our way back to Tiananmen Square to catch a bus. The tickets cost 160 yuan, or about 23 dollars. They included a round trip coach bus, entry into the Ming Tombs, entry into the Great Wall at the Ba Da Ling area, and lunch. Our coach bus left at 9:30, for the Ming Tombs.

Most of the time, I try to stay away from organized tour groups. I did not think it was possible for a tour group to be more of an excruciating experience then I was used to. However, this one topped all others-the guide spent the entire hour and a half on the way to the tombs talking loudly on the microphone in Chinese.

After finally making it to the Ming Tombs, we were steered towards a cafeteria type room, and seated at several round tables. Of course, all the Westerners sat at the same table. Staff members brought out the food-various vegetables, noodle dishes, and the biggest bowl of rice that Ben and I had ever seen:


There were ten people at our table. By the time we had finished eating, we had not even put a dent in that bowl of rice.

Moving on, we moved into the Ming Tombs. The premise of the tombs is pretty interesting-these are the burial grounds of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. However, the presentation was pretty bad. You go towards the main temple area of the tombs, and descend down into what is known as The Underground Palace. It looks more like the laundry room or basement of an apartment building than anything else. The tombs are encased in large red square boxes on one end-not very interesting, and a far cry from the mosques where the Ottoman sultans were buried in Istanbul. Other than that, there really isn't much to this area. Nevertheless, some pictures:


More fun then the actual tombs and temples of the area were the warning signs on the grounds, and their English translations. Notable ones include "Luxuriant Grass Don't Trample", "Cherish the Cultural Relic Please Don't Scribble" and "Environmental Sanitation of the Scenic Spot Needs Your Conserve". There was also this little gem:

Anyway, by 1:10pm, we were back on the bus, headed for the Great Wall. After another 50 minutes of bus travel, including 30 minutes of loud explanations in Chinese, we made it to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall. Here, we were given 2 hours to explore the wall. We had the option of walking up, or paying for the cable car up to the top. We chose the cable car option.

As we were walking towards the cable car, we passed by a makeshift "zoo" set up at the foot of the mountains the Great Wall was on. This consisted of 3 different pits in the ground, in which black bears were held. Some bowls of crackers and cucumbers were left on the side of the pits, for people to toss towards the bears. This was a free attraction, and I'm sure it is probably a PETA member's worst nightmare:

After buying our ticket for 30 yuan (~4 dollars and 50 cents), and waiting on line, we got on the cable car. However, this was not actually a normal cable car, but the strangest method of conveying people from one place to another that I've ever seen:

Each person was seated in a plastic car, shown above, probably salvaged from a Chinese amusement park ride that would break several U.S. safety codes. The cars were transported up a steep section of the hill, one by one. The pictures above show this method, and how excited everyone was to be on it.

However, all the slightly strange, slightly kitschy, and slightly annoying things about the trip so far melted away once I reached the top. It didn't matter that there were thousands of tourists around, that we were in the most popular viewing spot, or that there were several shops hawking souvenirs. The Great Wall was truly an awe inspiring sight. Miles of stone wall snaking their way through the mountains, with lookout towers posted at various points. It was an amazing thing to see:

At one point along the trail, I was stopped by a group of young Chinese tourists. They motioned me over, and started to ask me about taking a picture. I said sure and held out my hand, expecting that they wanted me to take a picture of them. Instead, the actually wanted to take a picture with me. I have no idea why; perhaps I was the tallest red-headed westerner they had ever seen (this was Ben's guess-he found the whole episode pretty funny). I spent the next 5 minutes wondering what they would tell their friends when they showed them the picture.

As everyone probably knows, the Great Wall was built in order to keep Mongol invaders from advancing into Chinese territories. I was left wondering why the wall was really needed; after all, it was built high into mountains that look very treacherous to cross-I can't really fathom how Genghis Khan would have gotten his armies across. In the end though, the Great Wall was very impressive, and I definitely recommend that people see it at least once in their lifetime.

After taking the bus back to Tiananmen Square, we decided to get dinner nearby. We went to the Laoshe Tea House, which turned out to be a pretty fantastic meal. We were seated at a large table that sat eight people (though we sat by ourselves). The meal was standard Chinese fare-bean curds in sauce, mushrooms and bok choi, and other rolls and noodles. The tables had decks of cards and sets of Chinese chess, for use while waiting for the food. In addition, there were some shows on a stage in front-first of live music played by a quartet, and then, a Chinese shadow puppet show. Below are some pictures at the Tea House, and a short video of the show.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, and got some sleep, for our early flight the next morning to Shenzhen, China...