Sunday, 25 September 2016
China: Day 13 - Beijing
We started the day visiting a jade exhibition and store. Some amazing works of art on display, with some jade statues that appeared to weigh thousands of pounds, yet carved with intricate detail.
After the jade exhibition, we traveled to a section of the Great Wall. The area we visited was certainly not what I expected. This section seemed like it was all stairs, with guard towers placed several hundred meters apart. We didn't travel too far, but we made it most of the way up the side of one hill. The steps were the difficult part, as they were not consistent. Some were a mere 4 or 5 inches high, when the next few would be 18 to 20 inches high. Tough climbing. Hard to imagine being a soldier in an ancient army and having to run up the stairs with weapons and armour. We were told that often soldiers were stationed in a particular guard tower where they would eat and sleep for extended periods.
It was too bad the smog/haze was so thick, making it impossible to get good pictures of the wall as it wound its way over the hills in the distance.
After our visit to the Great Wall, we stopped for lunch at a second floor restaurant, above a Cloisonne Factory. After lunch we had a few moments to check out the beautiful Cloisonne art.
To end the day's tour, we visited the Sacred Path of the Ming Tombs. This is an area where 13 of 16 Ming dynasty emperors are buried.
