Day 58: Beijing, China

We had an action-packed day planned (hence the many photos today!), so we met our guide Julia in our lobby at 8:30am and headed off in the direction of the Badaling section of the Great Wall. On the way, we stopped at a workshop and showroom for jade products, where they demonstrate how they carve and polish the pieces and also how to tell the difference between high and low quality jade. Here are a few pictures of some of the amazing pieces they have on display, along with rooms full of jade jewelry.






After that we continued on to the Great Wall, to an area called the JuYong Pass which has an extremely steep section of the wall that you can climb, giving excellent views of the surrounding area and other sections of the wall. Frank insisted we climb all the way to the top peak, which took us about 40 minutes.

Not to be outdone by Frank, here is a little historical information. The Great Wall is actual a series of fortifications and is not a continuous structure. Also, according to my Frommers guide, it is a myth that it can be seen from space. The concept of the wall began around 221 BC but the first version was made out of packed earth so did not last long. The stone structures were built and added to in subsequent dynasties. Here is the wikipedia link so this doesn't get too boring:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

The highest stone structure on top of the mountain in the distance is where we hiked to:





This is the view as we started climbing up - there are watchtowers along the way where the soldiers stayed to guard the wall.




This is another section of the wall across the valley along another mountain ridge.





The ascent was relatively steep in some places and our legs were shaking by the time we got to the bottom. We saw a woman doing the walk all the way up in 4 inch heels so I decided I had no excuse not to get all the way to the top.




Here's Frank pausing during some of my many requested water/catch-my-breath breaks.







This is the view back down.




Here we are next to the stone tablet with Mao's much admired calligraphy from an early visit of his to the Great Wall. Every single tourist takes a picture here so we figured why not.




One last view of our accomplishment!





We then went to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant located in a Friendship Store, which is a chain of state-run stores that used to be only for foreigners but are now open to everyone.






On the first floor, they had a workshop and showroom for cloisonne which is an ancient process using copper and enamels to make vases and other objects. Some of them were enormous:




In the afternoon, we drove to the Summer Palace, which was used by the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi as a summer retreat. She is known as the Dragon Lady and was an extremely selfish ruler, at one point supposedly diverting a large amount of money from the navy during a time of war in order to enlarge the Palace, thereby causing China's defeat.

Here is a dragon sculpture:





The Summer Palace covers a large area but the most important features are a large man-made lake and a beautiful covered walkway, called the Long Corridor, that runs along the side of the lake for 728 meters and is covered in over 14,000 paintings.












This is an enormous marble "boat" on the edge of the lake. Supposedly, the Empress Dowager Cixi used to sit up on the top balcony to eat her breakfast when the weather was nice, facing inward towards a large mirror so she could see the view reflected when she looked up.





Here is an old bridge that runs along the man-made river. People rent boats at a spot outside the Summer Palace and float by.





Our driver was kind enough to pull over into the bus stop of a side road along the highway so we could get out and take a picture of the Bird's Nest, built for the Olympic Games.




Then we went to a store that sells all kinds of tea and also does demonstrations/tastings. Here we are doing a tasting session with a very friendly girl from the tea shop. We tasted four kinds of teas, including a ginseng oolong and a jasmine tea.




She showed us a type of green tea that has a flower inside which opens up when you put it in hot water. The container to the left is filled with the balls of tea as they look before you put hot water on them.





Next we went to dinner at a well known Peking duck place called Da Dong, which was an excellent recommendation by our fabulous Beijing advisors (our friends in Singapore). It has very nice decor and is sort of a fancier version of the typical duck places, with an assortment of about 10 things to add to the pancakes you wrap the duck pieces in (as opposed to the 2 given to you at the more basic places).

These are the ovens where they roast the ducks:




This is the sign outside advertising the chef's specialty.





This is the accompanying photo.




Some of the dishes, as pictured in the menu, seemed to be artistic nouvelle cuisine presentations and portion size, but all of the things we ordered, along with the duck, were excellent and normal-sized portions.

After dinner, we were dropped off at the Red Theatre to see a show called The Legend of Kung Fu.




The show was sort of Broadway-esque and had some interesting martial-arts-inspired acrobatics and dancing. Our only disappointment was that the show was conducted entirely in English with Chinese subtitles up on a monitor. We wished it had been the other way around so it was a bit more authentic, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Other than a small adventure involving my forgetting a bag under the seat in the theatre, we made it home successfully after an extremely full day.

We have one more day of touring with our guide and then one more day on our own. We are definitely loving Beijing!

ILM