Beijing Day 2 – 9/27

We hired a tour guide and set off on our way to discover the Great Wall of China. The section of the Great Wall that we went to is called Badaling. This area is the most restored and thus the most visited by tourists. It is around 50 miles north of Beijing. It was a little mystifying walking on one of the 7 wonders of the world. Note to future tourists, the wall can be very steep at times and there are just as many slanted ramps as there are steps so do not attempt it during the rain. It was quite exhausting walking the wall but the experience and pictures were well worth it. Enjoy the fruits of our labor…

After our climb we visited the jade museum, which was more of a jade superstore (a mandatory tour guide stop). It is very common in China to have tour guides take you to places to buy things during your tour. As it turns out this was also where we had lunch. As we sat down we noticed that it was full of foreigners like ourselves. We realize this is a tourist trap at this point since we have never seen so many foreigners in one spot at a time. We looked at the size of the plates the other tourist had for reference and made our orders. Some rice, some spicy chicken, some hot and sour soup, and a plate of vegetables. When our plates arrive they are 4 times the size of the other people's plates. It is at this point we discovered that all of the other tables are part of 1 large tour guide and since we were not part of a large tour guide (it was just the two of us) our portions were different. So, after getting full from 1 of the 4 plates, and getting a small portion of the leftovers packed up (people do not take food home here) we tipped our hat to the clever tourist trap and moved on.

The last stop of the day was the Ming Tombs. This is a burial site for 13 of the Ming Dynasty Emperors. It is also on the way back to Beijing from the Great Wall. We visited the Sacred Way (basically an 8.8km path with tons of statues all carved from the same stone) and the Changling tomb. The Changling tomb is the tomb of the third Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle who created the Forbidden City and moved the capital of China from Nanjing to Beijing during 1402-1424 AD (pictured below).