Great WallOct 16, 2008
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Today we went to the great wall which is two hours from Beijing. The distance is not far but the traffic sucks.
None of us pay attention to it anymore. We have accepted our destiny.
The wall was truly awsome and if John had been there we could have done a three day traverse. There were two ways to go. One way had steps placed on the stones during refurbishment. The other way was steeper and mostly original. Hey, original works. Rena and I trudged up the steep sloped stones. The wall is wide enough for four horses abreast. It was truly awsome and we took lots of pictures including one of Moose sitting on the wall in the sun. The photo was taken near the top of this particular section of wall. We started ur trek at the right in front of the (horizontal)gable building and to the right of the (vertical) other gabled building.
It was long sleeve shirt weather but nearly everyone was wearing jackets, etc. As usual, men wear more clothes than women.
Rena bought some things from a wall vendor and I went on ahead to the top of the mountain. Those guys must have been tough. It isn't easy.
We spent an hour there and then went down to the ever waiting street vendors and ceasless shops.
After the wall we visited a copper vase factory that uses colorful ceramics .. Cloissene or something. I can say it was awsome and most of it out of our reach, in the thousands of US dollars. You must see the dozens of pictures to appreciate it.
Then we had lunch. They served a wonderful assortment of food. And, their alcohols specialty that pits white lightening to same. It is 58% . Rena liked it.
After this, at the top of Ming's Tomb we saw the red ball of the sun set over row upon row of blue mountains ok the horizon. Since it was almost closing we had the grounds pretty much to ourselves. I must say I temples out at this point and don't much care if I ever see another. The saving grace was we met a Chinese guide who had us join his small group to explain about the cultural significance of the tomb and why they are holding off opening it.
We are the last restaurant and I must run .... Besides my nose!
More later..... We get up at 4:30am to fly to the terra Cotta wariors. Dinner was great'
