Friday, June 10, 2011
Badaling (simplified Chinese: 八达岭; traditional Chinese: 八達嶺; pinyin: Bādálǐng) is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of urban Beijing city in Yanqing County, which is within the Beijing municipality. The portion of the wall running through the site was built during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military outpost reflecting the location's strategic importance. The highest point of Badaling is Beibalou (traditional Chinese: 北八樓), approximately 0.63 miles (1,015 m) above sea level.
The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists. Now visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car. The recently completed Badaling Expressway connects Badaling with central Beijing. Line S2, Beijing Suburban Railway, served people who wanted to go to the Great Wall from Beijing North Railway Station. People can buy tickets at Beijing North Railway Station to Badaling Station. A bus also runs frequently from Deshengmen to Badaling.
See that tiny building up there… that would be the third tower and the goal of the rest of the family… Michael, Chris, Bailey, Kendall, Brooklyn and Austin. We cheered them on!!!
The Ming Tombs are located about 48 km (31 miles) northwest of Beijing at a carefully selected site.
The Ming Tombs site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor YongLe (1402 - 1424), who moved the capital city of China from Nanjing to the present location of Beijing. He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of Beijing as well as a number of landmarks and monuments located therein. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420, YongLe selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum.
From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in the area now known as the Ming Tombs. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are located near Nanjing (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor ChongZhen, who hung himself in April 1644, was the last to be buried here, but on a smaller scale than his predecessors.
The Ming Tombs form the most extensive burial complex of any chinese dynasty and are one of the finest preserved pieces of 15th century chinese art and architecture. The Ming Tombs were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2003 along with other tombs under the 'Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties' designation.
The site of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs was carefully chosen according to Feng Shui principles. Accordingly, bad spirits and chilling winds from the north must be deflected. An arc-shaped area at the foot of the JunDu Mountains (the southern foot of TianShou Shan) was selected. This 40 square kilometer area - enclosed by the mountains in a pristine, quiet valley full of dark earth, tranquil water and other necessities as per Feng Shui - would become the necropolis of the Ming Dynasty.
Itinerary: (Reiterate… Note to self… we may have been a bit over ambitious on the schedule)
Jade Carving and Showroom
Badaling Great Wall
Pottery Factory and Showroom
Lunch
Ming Tombs
Teahouse
Hotel
We were all pretty whipped after the full schedule yesterday and relieved to only have two real destinations on our agenda today. What were we thinking???? Everyone was excited about the Great Wall today!!! That is what you come to Beijing for!!
The ride to the Great Wall was about an hour and a half. It gave us an opportunity to see the countryside outside of Beijing. But we would be making a stop at a shopping spot… the Jade Shoppe. I wonder what the arrangement is between the tour company and these ‘shopping stops’.
Here are a few quick pics from the Jade Shop.
Well as you might guess, we could not leave without a piece of jade. However, none of these very expensive carvings in the pictures made their way to our house. We were actually way more restrained, a bracelet for me and dragon pendant for Michael. Michael was born under the sign of the dragon so he wanted the pendant on a red chain. Jennifer and Chris bought something for his Mom and I got the grandgirls a little bracelet each. And I believe Marcy got a necklace.
So with our treasures safely tucked away, we’re on the road again for the Great Wall. It was pretty hazy as began to see the mountains and sections of the Great Wall came into sight. It was incredible… the kind of thing you are just in awe.
The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists. Now visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car. The recently completed Badaling Expressway connects Badaling with central Beijing. Line S2, Beijing Suburban Railway, served people who wanted to go to the Great Wall from Beijing North Railway Station. People can buy tickets at Beijing North Railway Station to Badaling Station. A bus also runs frequently from Deshengmen to Badaling.
That incline you see in this picture… that is just the beginning of what was yet to come. Little did we know what was in store for us!
But we are starting to get the picture now. There were two directions you could go from here. As you can see, to the left, way fewer people and to the right, way overcrowded. We chose unwisely… to the left. It was less crowded because it was mostly climbing at a 45 degree angle. There were rare sections with a mild angle.
There was nothing much gentle about this climb. It put yesterday to shame. We would take fatigue to a whole new level.
We all made it to the first tower. The last one up…that would be me! Now we make the climb to the next tower… oh my!!!
I think this picture might say it all!!! We had to be nuts!!!
Ok… we are the losers… of the world!!! The second tower claimed us. The higher I got the more I was getting vertigo, Jennifer’s lungs could not take it… Marcy had had enough… and of course, Kenneth with his gumpy ankle… we wore our ‘L’ proudly!!! Wade did not make it up to the third tower either… he was worried about his Momma.
So we hung out at the second tower with a man from the Netherlands that decided the next leg of the climb was a bit too much for him too.
At the third tower… these are the determined ones!!! This is as far as you can go on this side… once you make it up… ya just turn and go back down!!
The height alone was too much for me… my stomach does flips just looking at the pictures.
That is where they climbed to and returned from. Unbelievable!
WE are the champions…WEeee are the champions… WE are the champions of the woooorrrrld!!!! We came… we conquered… we climbed the GREAT WALL of CHINA!!!
They did an amazing feat. I was so proud of Austin and Brooklyn for making it… Chris, Kendall and Bailey… I knew would do it. And… my dear husband surprised me!
Now we had to get all the way down. The pictures give a bit of perspective of how far it is.
As we made our descent, we ran into this Chinese woman… check out her feet!
That is the most insane footwear for climbing the Great Wall. They did not make it far and turned around. She chose poorly!!
Almost to the bottom… thank the Lord… what on earth was I thinking! I am so happy that I did not fall… if I had, I would have tumbled all the way to the bottom!!
The guys found a local watering hole and partook of the local libations. The little guys were so happy to have their swords.
Our experience at the Great Wall memorialized with the family.
The hardest part so far… deciding what pictures to include in this blog… they are all so good and tell a story. But alas, I had to pick and choose. So forgive me if I have gone overboard!!
We are back at the store at the bottom of the wall waiting on the bus. There were these huge concrete elephants… great Kodak moment!!
Back on the bus and motoring toward the pottery place and lunch. We have taken what appears to be some kind of back road. We are passing other sections of the wall.
We arrived at the Yulong Friendship Shop which is a metal pottery and enamel maker. Although the things produced here were very pretty, we were not impressed with the prices. So we ate lunch in the restaurant that was in the back of the showroom. The food was ok, but we were not impressed with that either.
Next stop would be the Ming Tombs.
The Ming Tombs are located about 48 km (31 miles) northwest of Beijing at a carefully selected site.
The Ming Tombs site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor YongLe (1402 - 1424), who moved the capital city of China from Nanjing to the present location of Beijing. He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of Beijing as well as a number of landmarks and monuments located therein. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420, YongLe selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum.
From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in the area now known as the Ming Tombs. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are located near Nanjing (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor ChongZhen, who hung himself in April 1644, was the last to be buried here, but on a smaller scale than his predecessors.
The Ming Tombs form the most extensive burial complex of any chinese dynasty and are one of the finest preserved pieces of 15th century chinese art and architecture. The Ming Tombs were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2003 along with other tombs under the 'Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties' designation.
The site of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tombs was carefully chosen according to Feng Shui principles. Accordingly, bad spirits and chilling winds from the north must be deflected. An arc-shaped area at the foot of the JunDu Mountains (the southern foot of TianShou Shan) was selected. This 40 square kilometer area - enclosed by the mountains in a pristine, quiet valley full of dark earth, tranquil water and other necessities as per Feng Shui - would become the necropolis of the Ming Dynasty.
The large yellow structure is a silk burner used to burn silk materials after sacrificial rites during the Ming Dynasty.
I think everyone has just about run out of steam. We have one more stop, but energy levels have fallen to a dangerous low. The smiles in the pictures are getting harder to get.
Everyone load up… back on the bus with the last stop at the Teahouse. Although this is not the most flattering picture… it is the essence of the bus ride back. Kendall slipped the camera out of my bag and got an impromptu shot.
Images from the location of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. We passed the swimming events building and the "Bird Cage".
I have no idea what this building was all about, but it looked like a termite mound.
The Teahouse… We tasted 5 kinds of tea. I found it interesting because I had been told there was a technique to making Chinese tea and I was seeing it now first hand. It did not seem all that complicated, but did require special equipment. Of the 5 teas, two of them were like drinking flowers. Not really liking that too much. Then we had a green tea, but I have never really cared for hot tea. The Oulong tea was actually not bad… it was a black tea that tasted kinda sweet in the back of your throat. We were told to slurp it and roll it around in your mouth. The last tea was a special tea that grew better with age and with age it grew more expensive too. This tea you must eat? And it tasted like rice. Not impressed and certainly would not want to spend that kind of money for an old tea. At any rate, regardless of the taste, we would not be taking any of this tea home with us today.
This morning when we were going to the Great Wall, we passed a Fire Station. Chris and Kenneth, being fireman for our Mabank Volunteer Fire Dept, had brought patches with them so that they could trade patches if we happened to find a fire station. So on the way back, we stopped. It was unfortunate, but because the fire department is part of the government, they could not get approval to get a patch from the Chinese firemen. However, they left a Mabank Volunteer Fire Department patch with a Beijing, China Fire Station. Pretty cool!!!
This would be the last stop we would make until we got to the hotel. Everyone was tired so we were glad there would be no more sightseeing stops.
Bailey, Wade and Austin went with us to McDonalds where we met the Tanner’s for a good ole fashion US Fast Food dinner!! While we waited for the Tanner Clan, Austin entertained the locals with his rendition of the Kung Fu Panda! He was dancing and spinning and shaking his booty!!! We should have had a hat to pass… he was drawing a crowd!!
After dinner we walked through the mall that was attached to the Micky D’s. Then we crossed the street to the Beijing Railway Station.
It had been another long day and tomorrow we leave for the airport. Our plane leaves at 2pm so our bus will pick us up at 11am. I am glad we could make this trip to Beijing. It would have been terrible to make the journey all the way to China and not have an opportunity to see the real history of China. I’m ready for a good night’s sleep…
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