This my friends... is a picture of a wall.... not just any wall... but THE wall... THE great wall... read on for the deets....
Day two in China started with an Chinese style breakfast at the hotel.... It was delicious and gave us just enough energy to conquer the ..... wait for it.... Great Wall !
Why did I say Chinese style breakfast? Because in Asia... there is no "breakfast foods" served at breakfast.... No eggs, bacon, oatmeal or toast and jam... No fruit, yogurt or bagels.... Generally all meals are extremely similar in Asia... You can fully expect a plate of steamed veggies and meat to be at the breakfast buffet.... and we're used to it now... BUT it doesn't mean I like it!!!
We soon after jumped into our ride and were off for an hour and a half journey through Beijing and the countryside to see the Great Wall... About 30 minutes from the great wall we pulled over to a shop on the side of the road that specializes in jade jewelry and statues.... Later on during the tour we stopped at a few more tourist shops... I assume that our driver/tour guide got a cut from anything we bought from these places as they always headed back inside the shops after we bought something :) Sneaky Petes.... Here's a picture of a jade buddha... There was money scattered all over him as you could ask to be granted a wish if you parted with something of value.... (Jade is generally green.. but as I mentioned in the last China post... I haven't edited any of these pictures and the white balance had not been corrected)
Now... here's a picture of each of us with the Great Wall... I'm not going to post alll of them ... but there will be 5-10 pics of the great wall following this...
Annnnd yours truly :)
Here's a snap of the bottom of the very small section that we hiked... It took us about an hour to climb to the end of this section and anyone to do so was deemed a "hero"....
"Am I a hero? No. I'll tell you who is a hero though; Hiro, from the show heroes." - Michael Scott, "The Office"
Here's the mountainside greenery that stretched for miles and miles and miles... almost as long as the great wall itself... which is over 6,000 km's long !! ?!?!?!? !! INSANITY!!
These locks could be bought at one point to clasp onto chain attached to the wall itself... I thought it was a cool idea and would have bought one if they were still for sale...
Next we have an artsy fartsy shot of Lolo admiring the wall.. you can see the staircase stretch on in her glasses if you open up big size by clicking on the photo...
This is the inside view of the mountains from one of the many lookouts built about every 100 meters or so along the wall...
Here's a crazy looking mask for sale in focus and the mountains and great wall out of focus in the background...
Vice-Versa...
Me doing my signature wave.... also known as ... "The Clifford"...
Here we are at the end of the wall.. heroes at last... This is a picture of Laura having a staring contest with the wall.... after losing the contest she muttered "... you win... you always do.." and walked away...
From the last part of this section you can see where the wall starts again on a near mountainside a few km's away... You'd have to click on this one to see the lines of the wall start again....
The sky was really blue this day and the sun was HOT... It wasn't the best light for pictures... but I still managed to get a few shots off...
Another of the wall on the opposing mountain....
And here's the steps that go on .. FOREVER...
I picked up a few cheap t-shirts that will more than likely get eaten by my Korean washing machine named "deathtrap"... and we're done... off to the next destination....
We tour on to the Ming tombs... but not before stopping for lunch and another tourist shop guarded by these fools... (they're actually probably really important)
Laura bought a nice silk Chinese shirt while I painted this....
Then she wanted to look around some more at the Moo moo's... so I painted another one...
These are traditional Chinese guard/warrior statues.... seen everywhere in China....
Here's the entrance to Ming tombs... ANOTHER temple... you must be sick of seeing these by now... I know I am... Just wait until the forbidden city...
Been around a couple years I see.....
Here is the story of Zhu Di... Who was the founding Emperor of this temple during the 14th century...
And in Chinese... for all my Chinese friends playing along at home....
Mr. Zhu Di himself... Looking pretty darn proud of himself too if I might add... nice flow on that Fu Man Chu eh?
Some traditional pottery that reminded me of some of Mrs. Deyarmonds pieces from home...
If you think Jay-Z has a lot of bling... Check out Emperor Zhu Di's "silverware"... more like "goldware"... BALLIN' !
Saw Laura with her hands in this wishing dish when our guide wasn't looking.... times are tight...
Corner of one of the many temples...
The Emperor's were known to have upwards of 80 concubines (mistresses) .... Any man who entered the palace to work for the Emperor... usually known as eunichs..... unfortunately... if you look that up.. you'll find that a eunich is a castrated man... That's right... these Emperors trusted no one... and wanted all of the woman exclusively to himself... and made sure of it...
It was a very very hot day ....
I like these little dragon knockers for some reason...
And we are on our way out the doors... headed for another delicious dinner.... (ps.. the guy on the left's silhouette looks like me... it's not actually me.. no one is touching my camera :))
Here is one of the main buildings for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing that we passed on our way to dinner...
But not before we hit another unannounced tourist hot spot... for some authentic Chinese tea... This originally may have been Laura's favourite part of the trip... until she accidentally left the 40$ in rare tea she bought on the bus on our trip home from the airport ... boooooo....
Here's a shot of our Tea Guide explaining many of the medicinal benefits of the oolong/ginseng tea...
The testing cup is the smaller one... but the tea is first poured into the taller cup then transferred into the smaller... you then roll the tall cup between your palms as it releases the aroma and you can smell it first....
A charming pig I had to take one of on our way out of the tea house....
Onto dinner finally... some delicious chicken/nut dish with some fiery peppers to light the lamp....
Followed by another delicious mess of meatballs and veggies...
All accompanied by a bowl of tomato/egg soup and a nice cold Tsing Tsao Beer :).. Life is good in China...
This was a nice little Buddhist setup at the lobby of the restaurant...
We then went to a circus show to cap off the night... I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the performance... Which I am thankful for... I really enjoyed the show through my own eyes... BUT... I decided I had to shoot one frame from the hip when ELEVEN chinese women decided they would take a bike for a ride?!?!?!?... It's not the clearest frame... as there was security everywhere.. and my camera is anything but small... but you'll get the gist of it...
Some of the most amazing things I saw in China were not captured on camera... There's just too much going on... and I didn't feel like gluing my viewfinder to my face the WHOLE time.... The one thing I do regret not taking pictures of is the street food... I've never seen anything like it... oh well... I still saw it :)
That's it for day two... needless to say... we were exhausted and retired pretty early that night...
Day three had a tour of Tiananmen Square (where the very famous photo, "tank man" was taken), the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, a silk factory, and the most ridiculously huge underground black market for designer clothes.... yes.. Laura was ecstatic :)...
I should be posting within a weeks time.. maybe sooner as I've found I don't have to teach this week either... Until then..
ztai ztin.. (good bye)