A Day At The Wall and Summer Palace

Hi There! This is John. Yesterday we took a trip north of Beijing to tour the Great Wall and to see the Summer Palace.
Along the way, we stopped into a jade carving factory for some lessons on jade and some opportunities to browse around the showroom and do some shopping. We bought a nice little figurine and a couple of other things.
We then continued on to the Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall known as Juyung Pass. This part of the wall passes through a narrow valley and climbs steeply up both sides to the ridges above. That meant hiking up steep steps, but the views were well worth it. The higher we climbed the thinner the crowds, the more magnificent the vistas, and the more tired our legs got.
After our trek on the wall, we went to a Friendship Store. These are touristy places to get some authentic Chinese food and, you guessed it, to do some more shopping. The food was outstanding and the shopping was pretty good also.
The last stop of the day was the Summer Palace. As the name implies, this was the summer residence of the Ming and Qing emperors. It consists of a man-made hill overlooking a man-made lake. The views were wonderful and serene. Unfortunately, the vendors hawking Rolex's and Gucci bags were everywhere and very persistent.
Today we fly to Nanchang and meet a very special person. More later..

JADE FACTORY TOUR:

The sculpture we bought for ourselves.

We took these pictures as we were assuming we would mail it home but ended up packing and bringing home with us every gift we bought on this trip,

We bought all our Christmas gifts for our family in China this year.  Several were jade jewelry, including these necklaces.

THE GREAT WALL at Ju Yong Pass

First glimpse of The Great Wall.

According to this sign:  "Juyonguan Juyong Pass) is a national priority protected site proclaimed in 1961, and an important part of the Great Wall which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987.  ...   Lying in the Jundu Mountains, the ending section of the Taihang Mountains.   ... The Pass as we see today was planned by General Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, his Second in command and completed in the 1st year of Jingtai's reign of the Ming Dynasty (1450 - 1454)."

Looking at all the locks on the wall as I was walking up.  People leave locks attached to a wire to signify eternal love.  Many have red threads attached to the lock.

Not a great example but the steps are not even in height or depth.  Can not imagine how scary these would have been on a horse.

John hiked farther up the Juyong Pass than anyone in our group.

Edie B with the sign they brought along thanking their friends for the help they gave she and Dennis with the adoption.

A reenactment at the base of the Wall.

John.

Summer Palace

 Shirley telling our group about the Summer Palace.  It's Chinese name is YiHeYuan which translates as "Garden of Nurtured Harmony" or "Garden of Maintaining Health and Harmony".  Audrey's name given to her at YiFeng is He and for a while we thought she was given a name which translated as "harmony".  But there are different inflections and her name translates as "celebration".  So confusing. 

The garden that became the Summer Palace date back from the Jin Dynasty 91115 - 12340

Dowager Empress Cixi had this marble Boat constructed in 1886.  Cixi was known for her excesses and came to symbolize the decadence of the Imperial family.

Back to the Kuntai.  This is a picture of the lobby.  Shirley told all of us to get a good night sleep because we were going to need to be rested.

One of the last pictures of John prior to becoming a parent.

 

First full day touring Beijing

For some reason I am having trouble blogging from our notebook computer. But we have loads of pictures and plenty of notes from our journals. BTW thank you Krohnies (my co-workers @ conservatory) for the sweet journal. We loved your notes. Full, fun and fascinating Friday in Beijing. Tomorrow we will meet the other half of our group who finally arrived after some big time flight delays. We will go to a Jade market, the Great Wall and then the Summer Palace. Our guide Shirley is pretty terrific and giving us some interesting perspective on life in China. She was born and lives in Beijing. Sunday we fly to Nanchang and receive Audrey in the afternoon!
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TIANAMEN SQUARE TOUR:

Our guide "Shirley" at the beginning of our tour of Tianamen Square.  Some interesting facts about this site:  it is the largest gathering place in the world and is quite ancient.  Also iconic as it is right next to Forbidden City.

On one side of Tianamen Square is their main parliamentary building.

This is where Mao's body is raised and lowered daily.  I did not see a line for this but apparently there is always a line to go in even when it was as cold as it was the day we visited.

Monuments to honor those who gave their lives for China.

Opposite the parliament building is China's National Museum. 

Prior to the 2008 Olympics these big screens showing video of Chinese  landscapes were installed in Tianamen Square.

FORBIDDEN CITY

Our group heading towards the entrance of the Forbidden City.  This was the Imperial Palace for Chinese emperors from the Ming to Qing Dynasty. 

It was constructed over a 14 period, 1407 - 1420, during the Ming Dynasty and home for 24 emperors through the early prat of the 20th  Century.   It was forbidden to commoners and not open to the public until

The image we think of relative to Forbidden City.

Mark K carrying our FTIA flag to keep us together in this HUGE site.

Forbidden City is surrounded by 30' tall walls and a 6' moat.  The area is 8 million square feet or 168  acres or about 140 football fields.

It has 9,999 rooms.  9 is a lucky number to the Chinese.

It was sooo cold that day.  We experienced a lot warmer weather as trip continued.

Towards the end of the tour is this spot where many Chinese couples get engaged.

The intertwined trees at the exit.

TOURING THE OLYMPIC VILLAGE

In the afternoon we briefly toured the Olmypic Village.  You can see from this picture that the smog had settled in quite a bit more in the afternoon.

The Water Cube

We were told this is the best hotel in Beijing where people like Bill Gates, etc stayed during the 2008 Olympics.

ACROBATIC SHOW

Our day ended with an acrobatic show.  This is the only picture I have since my camera battery died right about then.  But you could only take pictures after it was voer anyhow.  The show was an hour long and pretty impressive.  The seat were very close together so the taller members of our group were very happy the show was not any longer.