The year of the horse is my year.
First they took us to a jade factory, which was really a stop at a jade store, and then onto Ming's tombs. These are 13 tombs from the Ming dynasty. We decided to go to the only one that has been excavated so we could go down inside. The only thing was that the upper temples weren't restored at this tomb. We were expecting something special but once we got there and the tour guy started explaining that nothing was original down there we were disappointed. It made sense once he explained that the tomb was so old that once they opened it everything was falling apart- there weren't even bodies left- they weren't preserved like the mummies. So we went all that way to go and look at some red boxes- imitations of what would have been used. Super fun... not.
The only thing that was original was the structure.
This was about it down there- the emperor's throne.
It was ok though because next we were headed to the GREAT WALL!
The view from the great wall. You can see the original parts of the great wall and in the distance, if you look closely, you can see the great wall on the far mountain range.
The great wall is not close to any big cities so we had to take a drive to get out there. It also like most things in China, it is not original and has been restored. We were able to see from our part of the restored wall parts of the wall that had not been restored. First things first though- when we first got there we had the option of climbing up the hill to the great wall or taking a ski lift to the great wall.... considering we only had an x amount of time to spend at the great wall, and it was a long way up there we took the lift.
The boys on the lift in front of us.
The wall was amazing and probably my favorite part of the trip. It stretched for as far as the eye could see and we were one of just probably 3 other groups on at this time.
It just keeps going.
We were extremely lucky to have gone to this part of the wall and had a wonderful experience.
The wall <3
Me and the wall- you can tell it isn't a nice and straight. My feet are on a step on the stair.
One of the best parts was that they had a toboggan ride to the bottom of the mountain. It was like the alpine slide, and wound all the way down from the great wall.
What we rode down on.
The view from the ski lift.
The view from the top.
After the great wall we went to a silk factory and then onto a tea house.
A silk machine, the little white silk balls still have the silk worms inside.
The Chinese government wants the world to become more acquainted with their ancient tea rituals so they have free tea ceremonies for us to participate in. We were able to taste some of the teas (the ones that were just herbal) and it was fun to experience that bit of Chinese culture.
Dr. Tea
Our tea lady.
A tea set.
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