The Great Wall, Ming Tombs and the Great Accident

Today we went on a tour of the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. We left the conference center around 8:30 a.m. and drove about an hour outside the city. Our first stop was a jade factory where they produced different jade items and of course sold them. I’m always a little wary of the tourist traps that the organized tours always stop at. The prices were double and triple what I paid at the pearl market but it was interesting to see how the different items were created. After the short stop we headed on to the Great Wall. Driving along the mountains in the distance seemed huge and very steep and as we got closer our tour guide pointed out the wall on a mountain straight head of us. As we drove, the mountain and the wall got bigger and bigger. I quickly realized this might be a rough trip. I had come fully prepared though with a white dress to deflect the light instead of my black top from Tuesday that sucked the heat in, a washcloth from the hotel and an umbrella. Once on the wall I began to appreciate what soldiers who patrolled the wall must have had to deal with during the scorching summer months. The steps on the wall are very uneven with some extremely shallow steps and others so steep I needed to hoist myself up by holding the railing. Within ten minutes of climbing I was so sweaty my dress was damp. My washcloth felt like I’d soaked it in water and I was panting. On the plus side, I apparently must have looked good since a group of Pakistani men asked to take pictures with me. I agreed thinking they wanted me to take their picture and didn’t realize my mistake until one of them stood beside me and put his arm on my shoulder. So now some guys in Pakistan will have a photo of me at the Great Wall.

The climbing continued and the higher I went the harder I was breathing, the sweatier I got. However, whereas at the start I’d been jostled by a huge crowd of people, the higher I got the less crowded it got. I made it to I think the fourth tower and decided that was high enough. I’d forgotten my water on the bus but one of the guys on our tour offered to buy me a water at the top. I think I guzzled more than half in one huge gulp. I’d been walking up with three guys from the tour but whereas I decided to turn around, they were determined to reach the top. Our tour guide had said it is a rite of passage for Chinese boys to climb the Great Wall. I guess it’s no wonder that at the point I decided to turn around there were few women. One of the guys was like a mountain goat. He was wearing black athletic pants and I have no idea how he managed to be so energetic with the oppressive heat. I remember the last time I was at the Great Wall I’d gone much further but it was October and much cooler.

During my descent I passed the same group of Pakistani guys and was greatly amused they were now hitting on a couple of girls from France. By the time I arrived at the bottom of the entrance to the wall my legs were shaky. Going up certainly had been harder and I got a workout but going down was tough too since you had to use a lot of muscle control to navigate the uneven steps oftentimes without a railing to hold on to.

After the Great Wall we headed to lunch. We ended up at a government run friendship store. I was less than thrilled. Our lunch was the Chinese interpretation of what Chinese food in America is; so most of the meat dishes were sweet and sour and fried. It wasn’t the best food but I was hungry. Before we had lunch they took us on a short tour of how cloisonné is done. We watched a worker glue copper pieces to a vase. That vase is then fired to meld the copper to the vase. Then the vase is hand-painted with enamel and fired. This is done seven or eight times since the enamel shrinks each time it dries. After that it is polished so the surface is even and then it’s ready to sell.

A friendship store is set up by the government as a place to take tourists to buy quality products. The problem is that you can usually find the same quality or at least comparable quality on the street and you can haggle whereas at the friendship stores they have set prices. Although they are willing to haggle a little bit especially this year because the tourism industry has taken a hit the last couple of years with the economy and the Olympic Games. The Olympics caused a shortage in visas for the rest of the year so even though it was good for the country it didn’t help the tourism industry much.

After the friendship store we headed to the Ming Tombs. The countryside is a very different scene compared to the bustling city of Beijing. There were fields of peach and apple trees and small corn fields all surrounded by mountains densely covered by trees. The scenery is very peaceful. Along the road farmers had small fruit stands set up and families tended these roadside stops. Driving along it seemed as though we’d traveled back in time except for the buses and cars we continually passed. As we drove down a tree-lined street we came up to a black Toyota that was clearly a “Sunday driver.” At one point he seemed to be trying to pull off the road and our bus driver tried to pass him but at the last second the driver started merging back onto the road causing our driver to veer into oncoming traffic. Fortunately, the car coming towards us stopped far enough away so we didn’t hit but we ended up colliding with the idiot in the black car. Our driver immediately stopped and ran out yelling at the other driver. It was pretty entertaining. So our tour of the Ming Tombs was held up by the aftermath of the accident. Given my mom’s lack of ability to handle any “stressful” situation she immediately proclaimed it was our driver’s fault and she was writing to the contact at the conference who booked the tour company. I was extremely annoyed by her very vocal proclamation that our driver was crazy, was following much too close and it was entirely his fault. I attempted to explain that in Beijing all the drivers are very aggressive and it is not possible to follow two cars lengths behind as in America. Twenty other cars would just pass by and fill in the space. It’s a big game of chicken really; which car will stop first. I’ve already seen at least four or five accidents in the last three days. People merge and it’s expected that the car behind will slow down. The fault in an accident is usually the car that didn’t let the other car merge not the merger. However, in this case, the black car was not supposed to stop and our driver was well within his right to pass the car because it was illegally stopping. I tried explaining this but she was convinced she was right and it was our driver’s fault. I felt vindicated when our tour guide got back on the bus and explained it was the other driver’s fault.

The whole accident only took about 20 minutes and very soon after we were on our way. We arrived at the tombs and headed in. I was expecting to see a museum and a few of the different tombs but the place was only the first tomb that was constructed and the museum was more of a glorified display. There was a lot of information regarding the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Tombs refer to the thirteen Ming emperors who are buried in the area. It was believed that the location had excellent Feng Shui because of the mountains which protected the emperors from evil and the river which flowed through that brought good fortune. The tomb we saw was the Changling Tomb that was the tomb of Emperor Yongle known during his time as Zhu Di and his wife the Empress Xu. To assume his reign he traveled to Nanjing which was the capital at the time (1402 A.D.) and killed his nephew who had assumed reign after his grandfather (Zhu Di’s father) had died. After claiming the throne he then moved the capital to Beijing where it was remained since. Despite the fact that he killed his nephew, the Chinese have regarded him as a great ruler who stressed farming and boosted socioeconomic development.

The trip back was uneventful although I saw another accident and we had a few close calls. Once back at the hotel I decided I need food and not Chinese food. We ended up ordering room service which by dining standards so far is expensive although really it was still only about $12 for a cheeseburger and fries. I do love Chinese food but that burger was delicious. And since I’d have paid about $20 for the same meal in an American hotel, I was perfectly happy to do so. Well let’s be honest, my parents will probably be picking that tab up. Anyway, tonight I attempted to pack up for our trip to Xi’an tomorrow. Apparently the weight limits for travel on Chinese airlines is 11 lbs. for carry-on and 44 lbs. for checked luggage. It was impossible for me to do that so I’m forced to leave some of my things at the hotel where they will be stored until my dad comes back from his trip.