Beijing, China-The Great Wall

Today's post is the 4th - and last - in a series about Beijing (for now). This one is all about the Great Wall of China. Now, technically speaking, the Great Wall is not part of Beijing - it's located in the mountains outside of the city. However, most people that visit Beijing, like to include a trip to the Great Wall...most likely near the city of Badaling (which is where I went), about 45 miles outside of Beijing. The Great Wall is truly one of the most famous structures in the world - literally one of the Eight Wonders of the World. This massive wall was built to keep out barbarian invaders - but it kept the Chinese "in" as well. It runs about 2,600 miles.  I can't begin to tell you how far you can look...and you'll still see parts of the Great Wall in the distance. Here's a picture of a major portion of the Badaling Wall.

That portion that you see, on the right-side of the picture, climbs north.  The devious part of the picture, is that you can't see just how steep that climb really is.  I consider myself in decent shape...and I had walked all over Beijing on this particular trip.  However, when I started to climb this portion of the Wall, to get to that guardhouse at the top of the hill, I couldn't believe how DIFFICULT it was.  I saw several people that were holding on to the side of the wall, gasping for breath.  Lots of little old ladies that were trying to make it up the hill.  I'm proud to say that I did make it...with a little effort ; )  Here is one of the few pictures of me in China - just to prove that I was actually there:

Since the Wall is located in the mountains, it was pretty cold up there (although it was in early November, I believe).  No real snow on the ground, just real cold in the air.  I tried to take a "panoramic shot" by stitching a bunch of pictures together, to give you a sense of the view from this part of the Wall (click to enlarge):

After spending some good hiking time on the Great Wall, I visited the Ming Tombs, situated on the main road back towards Beijing (about 30 miles outside the city).  Here, you'll find several tombs of the Ming emperors, starting from about 1407.  It's not nearly as ornate as the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven - but it's still an impressive structure, and included in most tours of the Great Wall:

Last, but certainly not least, I was given the opportunity to visit a jade factory.  I think they try and take all the tourists here, to empty their wallets ; ) The factory workers take jade stone and carve it into all kinds of delicate structures.  They had just about any kind of jade carving that I could ever want.  

I only picked up a couple of jade lions, that matched the statues found within the Forbidden City.  I'm a salesperson's worst tourist...I don't buy that much when I travel.  Jade would certainly have weighed-down my suitcase, and I like to stay extremely mobile.

This concludes my initial posts on Beijing.  As I will travel there often in the coming years, I'll have additional posts that look at a little more than just the tourist stops ; )