us up at 8:30am on our first day tour of
Beijing. Our itinerary for the day was packed.
It included the Ming Tombs, Dingling Tomb,
Sacred Way, Jade shop & Badaling Great Wall!
On our way to the Ming Tombs we pulled the car
over to get a look at the exterior of the
Olympic stadiums of the 2008 Olympics held
there. We took a couple quick pictures of the
Bird's Nest and Water Cube. We discussed Michael
Phelps's success and his resemblance to a large
American freshwater fish. From there we drove
on to the Ming Dynasty tombs, where 13 emperors
have been buried. We walked down the Sacred Way,
which out of all the spiritual locations we
were taken to, this one turned out to be the
most serene.
Mostly because it was early morning and free of the typical
heavy tourist throng. Frickin amateurs!
1500's that was just excavated in the
1950's. It's the only one of the tombs
that the government decided to excavate.
Apparently there was a lot of controversy
over it back in the 50s, then there was
a revolution in the middle of the work
and things got put on hold for 10 years.
During that time many of the artifacts
that were uncovered were just thrown into
a holding room that was later damaged by
floods. All in all, it didn't sound like
it went like they originally planned.
But they still had a lot of artifacts from the tombs, from this Emperor and
his 2 Empresses (you know Ding Ling). It was kind of like a Pharaoh's tomb concept, try to keep all your good sh*t with you in the afterlife, in case it's still worth something or comes back in fashion a 1000 years later. They even had a wishing well (more like a slot) that many people had aimed from 20 feet away and missed. I came up to the line and delivered a strike...no problem! I had Randi telling me the rest of the trip "you're so lucky John Kelley" :)
It was built in 200 BC and is the longest man made structure in the world. It is also listed as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. It is truly
amazing and it goes as far as the eye can see. We went in on a certain area called Badaling.
Our guide Robert explained to that we can either
go the one direction that everybody takes and is
less steep or you can take the road less traveled
because it can be a strenuous hike at times but
the view is so much better and it's much less
crowded.
So we didn't have much of a choice...the gauntlet was thrown down!
was the strenuous part. I had to reach back to my
2008 Olympic shape to get up the steep inclines.
It may not have been a medal quality performance
but we did it. It was actually a really great hike
with some incredible views.
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