BEIJING

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA AND THE MING TOMBS

We arrived on time at Beijing West Railway station and joined a queue of maybe 200 passengers looking for a taxi too.  Amazingly the line moved quickly and we were soon back at the Swissotel Beijing.  We had arranged to hire a driver to take us out to the Great Wall.  We phoned him as he had suggested and lo and behold there he was waving to us across the lobby.  David and Sam had used the same man on their earlier visit.  He was known as John Yellow Car.  After some breakfast we hit the road.  He had a very new white Toyota car and he explained he used to drive a yellow car.  He drove well and fast and was a bit of a chatter box.  He knew his way around, avoiding potential and real traffic jams and we were soon at our starting point. 

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood and other materials running from East to West across the historical northern borders in part to protect the Chinese Empire against various intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples  or forces.  Several walls were built as early as 7 B.C., these were later joined together and made bigger, stronger and unified and are now collectively called the Great Wall of China.  Especially famous is the wall built between 220-206 B.C. by the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang who was responsible for the Terracotta Army.  Little of that wall remains.  Since then the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained and enhanced.  The majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644.

There are a number of sections in very good repair and we chose to go the Muntianyu which is 2.25 km long. 

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click outside the image returns you to the text 

Map of the wall

We walked from the bottom of the map, up to Tower No 6 and along to Tower No 14. In our reading it had been suggested that we should take a pleasant walk up through the woods to reach the wall at Tower No 6.  

 

Quite lot of people of all ages chose this way up which took about half an hour

As we climbed we saw one of the ways down - the toboggan slide

 

The view at the top showing the type of terrain the wall traverses

You can see the wall as it snakes to the East.  This section is not open for walking

 Our first view along the wall

 

 

The wall ahead from a break in the wall at a tower

 The prospect ahead of us, our furthest point is on the horizon

One of the towers ahead

You can see how well preserved the wall is 

There were people everywhere you looked 

Another really massive tower

As far as you can walk on this section

 

We weren't quite sure what was going on here

The furthest point

Our way down after we had finished our walk 

Johnny was waiting for us down below and we took off on winding roads to the Ming Tombs.  Just before we got there we stopped at a little cafe where we had lunch.  Again, we probably wouldn't have risked going in to eat but Johnny said it would be fine and it was.

The site of the Ming Dynasty Tombs at Changling was chosen on the Feng Shui principles by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle  (1402–1424), who moved the capital of China to its the present location in Beijing . After the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420, he selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum, the Ming Tombs. From Emperor Yongle onwards, 13 other Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area.

 

The Hall of Prominent Favor at Changling

The bronze of the Emperor Yongle

Detail to the head of the bronze

A Ming Vase

Map to the Changling Tomb

 

A Silk Burning Stove used to burn sacrifices of silk and money for deceased emperor.

We returned to Beijing passing the principal Olympic Games sights, the Birdcage and the Water Cube. which are just North of the City centre.  We also called into a Tea House where a nice young lady explained the mysteries of good tea.

We had a good day out with Johnny Yellow Cab and to our surprise he gave us a lovely gift as we parted company. a Chinese Wall hanging.

Our wall hanging from Johnny Yellow Cab 

For our evening dinner we went to Argana, a Moroccan restaurant.  There is every cuisine in the world available in Beijing, but just one Moroccan.  We had enjoyed the real thing in Morocco.