Beijing - and the GREAT WALL!

Sorry that I have been so lax about updating my blog....I left you readers hanging before the biggie!  Life has gotten in the way....regular committments, Garden Club, Book Club, a trip to NC for Mom's 88th birthday and getting the house & yard ready for Cathye's graduation party next weekend.  However, I want to get the cameras and tour books off the kitchen counter, so here is our last day in Beijing.

After breakfast at the hotel, we got on our tour bus & drove to the Ming Tombs at Chang Ling where 13 of the 16 Ming emperors are buried in what is currently a park-like setting. We visited the tomb of one of the emperors, Yongle.   It had some beautiful artifacts displayed in an exhibit hall, but mentally I was screaming, "Take me to the GREAT WALL!" 

 Emperor Jongle

Then we had another visit to a jade "factory," aka store.  Beautiful items, but this was at least our 3rd visit to a jade store on various excursions, and as usual they were too expensive and too heavy for our suitcases!

Carving jade.

                                                           
                        Jade ship for sail....I had just the spot for it back home, but alas, not in our budget!

  Lunch was upstairs; another mystery meal but western toilets (sad, how I have let myself rate restaurants on the basis of their restrooms).  This lunch was interesting because after the usual desert of watermelon, the waitresses came around with Dove bars and other frozen ice cream items...for sale!  (In the meantime, especially during our time at the store, I am mentally screaming, "Let's stop wasting time and go see the GREAT WALL."

Our trek via bus to the Wall took us through mountainous scenery and in the distance, one could glimpse sections of the Great Wall, a series of walls constructed over 2000 years ago in an attempt to ward off northern nomads.  There are some sections open for tourists such as ourselves, others open for serious climbers/hikers and some sections in such disrepair that they are not open at all.  We ended up at the section of the Wall at Badaling, a supposedly very accessible walk.  Ok, folks.....we were here!  It was a very steep walk up the road to the wall....another, steeper climb to access the wall (and I was ready to give up my goal of climbing the Great Wall....but Bill encouraged me to keep going)....a very steep and uneven flight of steps and I was there at a watchtower!  I had climbed the GREAT WALL.  Bill kept walking & climbing for a while more; I contemplated the scenery and people watched.  We were done before we had to meet our tour bus and spent some quality time contemplating the scenery and talking about future travel plans.

                                                    Bill & CAROL on top of the GREAT WALL!

On our way into Beijing (another long bus ride where I slept) we stopped at the side of the road to snap shots of the Birds' Nest, the Olympic Stadium from the games in 2008. 

Dinner that night was at a restaurant known for its Peking Duck.  Food was good but dinner was the usual rushed tourist group affair.  But we were all tired after our long day and had to pack and repack our suitcases for early morning departures to the States the next day.

Next blog.....the ship, Nautica of Oceania Cruiselines.