Asia Adventure 2012: Beijing

My camera’s warning lights informed me that my 3^rd and last set of lithium batteries were almost out of power, but every touristy shop sold regular batteries, not the lithium ones. After Greg had a bunch of batteries confiscated during our Ahmedabad to Delhi transfer, we were down to 4 regular strength batteries which will my camera will gobble up in no time. But at least we had a plan B.

We woke up to a windy but clear sunny day in Beijing, but the farther we travelled out of the city, clouds slowly found supremacy over the sunshine. After passing through a 2km long tunnel, we arrived at the Guanling section of the Great Wall where we selected the steeper, more difficult, and less crowded section to enjoy. At all the watch towers, merchants were pedalling wares such as postcards, chiselled stone drawings, t-shirts, and other trinkets. Some were incredibly assertive and Greg did purchase one of the chiselled stone drawings from a merchant at the very last lookout. Our short hike ended there, but we did get to view the original wall from that watch tower. Occasionally, the sun would win supremacy over the clouds, so we were able to capture some good shots and some video of me dancing the “yellow brick road” in one of the flatter sections. Greg came close to losing his glasses while trying to view the 360 degree vista from his binoculars.

Primarily built for protection, construction on the Great Wall began as early as 220BC and continued until well after the 7^th century. It is just over 8,800kms long including over 6,200kms of wall, 360kms of trenches and over 2,200kms natural barriers like hills and rivers. So we really saw just the tiniest snippet of it, but that was magnificent in itself.

Heading back towards Beijing, sunny skies reappeared. As has been the case on all our tours, at least one stop involves an “opportunity to learn” about a local craft/art process. In this case it was a visit to the Beijing Dragon Land Superior Jade Gallery where we learned about the quality, colours, and uses for various types of jade, before passing through a large gallery of finished and high-priced products for sale, before reaching the restaurant where we were once again over-fed. Why didn’t I pack my “buffet” pants?

We then found our way to the Ming Tomb, resting place of 13 of 16 emperors. It took 2 years to select this suitable location, based on feng-shui principles; evil spirits and north winds are deflected in an horseshoe-shaped area at the base of the Jundu Mountains and is enclosed by a quiet valley and peaceful water. But I must ask how much peace there is now, given the masses of tourists visiting every day. Artifacts from the only Ming tomb excavation at the Dingling Tomb were under the watchful eye of security personnel while on display; included jewellery, silk, textiles, wood, porcelain, gold, brass, etc. Some of the artifacts are replicas due to water and wind damage that occurred from inadequate preserving methods.

A 7km road, built in 1435, called “The Sacred Way” led to the Ming Tomb. We entered through the North Gate (Longfeng Gate) which is one of the biggest stone archways in China. The Sacred Way is lined with statues of civil officials (yes civil officials were important, unlike we poor under-rated Canadian civil servants), army generals, and animals in both standing and prone positions; horse, quilin (baby dragon), elephant, camel, xiezhi (mythical creature with horn in middle of its head), and lion. At the south end of this walkway, is the Shen Gong Sheng de Stele Pavillion which houses a 50-ton tortoise shaped dragon-beast carrying a stone tablet. The pavilion has 4 white marble pillars of glory topped with a mythical beast at each corner. The Sacred Way surely looks more spectacular with leaves on the weeping willow trees that line the path, but we visited about 1 month too early for that.

Rather than being dropped back at the hotel, we opted to return on our own, to revisit Tiananmen Square in the sunlight. Despite the heavy traffic’s attempt to thwart our effort, we just caught the last rays of sun shining down on preparations for the daily lowering of the flag ceremony. It was excellent to be able to see from one end of the square to the other without interference of the fog-smog. Wow! While I was busy running from one end of the other to capture this magnificence on camera, Greg was busy posing for shots with Chinese tourists and chatting with a local resident and Teacher, named David.

We passed by the National Centre for Performing Arts where I playfully did a rendition of “Dancing in the Rain” with my walking stick, which seemed to be an object of interest to people and security personnel.

We ducked into one of the shopping malls on the way back to the hotel in an effort to find some batteries for my camera, but it was so huge and jam-packed with fashion stores, so we gave up looking.

One thing we noticed here in Beijing is that the happiest, smiley people are preschoolers and retirees. Most others are very serious looking and rarely smile.

Tonight we watched Robin Hood.

The Great Wall on a particularly steep section

an old section of the wall off limits to tourists

the artist who sold Greg a carved picture of the wall

Ball of Happiness carved from a solid piece of jade. Many are several layers thick. It represents family with each layer representing a different member and that the family cannot be torn apart.