Nancy’s Big Adventure

Is it fog or smog?

I am so tired and sore – I climbed 4 towers of the Great Wall today. (Katie climbed 8!  But she’s a flipping maniac …).

The further you walk, the better it gets, but the climbing is tough!  The steps are tall and extremely uneven and very steep in places.  The worst part for  me was coming  down, complicated by my fear of heights (!!)  and there are a few places that do not have handrails –  but it is worth it to get as far as you can, surrounded by the incredible scenery –  and the Wall stretches on forever ….

The Chinese tourists were out in full force on the Wall – it was so crowded! People pushing and shoving, running and jumping, stopping to take pictures, sitting down simply because they cannot take one more step …  You really cannot expect to have your private space when visiting any of the tourist sights, and especially the Badaling section of the Great Wall!

On the way to the Great Wall we stopped at the Ming Tombs (Shisanling).  The site of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs was carefully chosen according to Feng Shui principles. According to these, bad spirits and evil winds descending from the North must be deflected;  the Ming tombs lie in a broad valley to the south of Tianshou (Longevity of Heaven) Mountain, “defended” on each side by the Dragon and Tiger hills. Thirteen out of the 16 Ming emperors are buried here, but only three have been excavated. The main features of Ming Tombs are the Stong Bridge, Soul Tower, Baocheng, and the Underground Place.  The entire tomb site is surrounded by a wall, and a 5 mile road named the “Spirit Way” leads into the complex. The front gate of the complex is a large, three-arched gateway, painted red, and called the “Great Red Gate”.  

 We also cruised past the building site of the 2008 Olympics – construction workers were busy building the swimming complex and putting the finishing touches on the “birds nest” . The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird’s nest, will be the main track and field staium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. Quite something.  Not exactly Lambeau Field (hallowed ground alert!), but quite something. The other complexes in the area are HUGE and it is fascinating to watch the workers at the sites. Finally, we are back to our hotels ~ it’s been a fun and exhausting (have I ever been this tired?) day.  Forgive me if this submission rambles on a bit ….  I’m tired and I wanna go to bed ….

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.