Monday, December 12, 2011
Beijing. Day 4 (Day 5 by itinerary)
Today is the big day where we get to do all the physical stuff! We're going off to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs. Alot of walking not to mention a long trip on the bus!
After reaching the Great Wall, it's just quite a cool feeling to be there. You know the old saying “不到长城非好汉”. However this was the second time I was at the Great Wall and did you ever hear that there was another line ? “再去长城是笨蛋”。 So I guess I am 笨蛋, but it's ok!! The only thing is this time round I did not bring my Great Wall Capriccio (长城随想). I listened to it at the top the last time round and I tell you, that feeling... was just majestic. I was at Badaling (八达岭) and this time I went to Juyongguan (居庸关) but I am sure that feeling would have been quite as cool.
This time round though, I didn't go all the way to the top. It's bloody tiring for one, and I was with my parents. My father has a heart condition so he should really exert himself too much. He went as high as the third signal tower though!! With enough time, he could have gone up further but he also did not want to end up being late for the group gathering time.
My last trip, you could get your 好汉证书 at the top, but nowadays you can get it right at the carpark! You don't even have to climb. :P
After lunch, we went to the Ming Tombs. So far, only one of the 13 tombs has been excavated. The other 12 have not yet been opened up since there is currently no technology to prevent disintegration of the items once they have been excavated.
There were 16 Emperors of the Ming dynasty. Two were not buried in Beijing and there was one who's body could not be found as he fled after his seat was usurped and thus there are only 13 tombs in the Ming Tombs site.
We explored the area of Dingling (定陵) and also visited the underground chambers. We were told not to touch the walls, although I have no clue whether it was because the walls would be very cold.. or some other reason. No photos here cos our SG tour leader kept reminding us to leave the cameras in the bus since it was considered a cemetery and "no Chinese takes pictures of cemeteries right?". *cough* I actually do *cough*. But it's ok, she was being kind to remind us to be careful about things that we may not know about so I left the camera in the bus.
On the way out, we will pass by this archway and we would need to proclaim our return. It's kinda fun actually and all you do is sweep your sleeves and then go "我回来了!". It's apparently fine to do it in any language so I guess "I"m back!" will work just as fine as "ただいま！" although I don't think Japanese will gain you much favours in China.
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Today is the big day where we get to do all the physical stuff! We're going off to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs. Alot of walking not to mention a long trip on the bus!
After reaching the Great Wall, it's just quite a cool feeling to be there. You know the old saying “不到长城非好汉”. However this was the second time I was at the Great Wall and did you ever hear that there was another line ? “再去长城是笨蛋”。 So I guess I am 笨蛋, but it's ok!! The only thing is this time round I did not bring my Great Wall Capriccio (长城随想). I listened to it at the top the last time round and I tell you, that feeling... was just majestic. I was at Badaling (八达岭) and this time I went to Juyongguan (居庸关) but I am sure that feeling would have been quite as cool.
This time round though, I didn't go all the way to the top. It's bloody tiring for one, and I was with my parents. My father has a heart condition so he should really exert himself too much. He went as high as the third signal tower though!! With enough time, he could have gone up further but he also did not want to end up being late for the group gathering time.
My last trip, you could get your 好汉证书 at the top, but nowadays you can get it right at the carpark! You don't even have to climb. :P
After lunch, we went to the Ming Tombs. So far, only one of the 13 tombs has been excavated. The other 12 have not yet been opened up since there is currently no technology to prevent disintegration of the items once they have been excavated.
There were 16 Emperors of the Ming dynasty. Two were not buried in Beijing and there was one who's body could not be found as he fled after his seat was usurped and thus there are only 13 tombs in the Ming Tombs site.
We explored the area of Dingling (定陵) and also visited the underground chambers. We were told not to touch the walls, although I have no clue whether it was because the walls would be very cold.. or some other reason. No photos here cos our SG tour leader kept reminding us to leave the cameras in the bus since it was considered a cemetery and "no Chinese takes pictures of cemeteries right?". *cough* I actually do *cough*. But it's ok, she was being kind to remind us to be careful about things that we may not know about so I left the camera in the bus.
On the way out, we will pass by this archway and we would need to proclaim our return. It's kinda fun actually and all you do is sweep your sleeves and then go "我回来了!". It's apparently fine to do it in any language so I guess "I"m back!" will work just as fine as "ただいま！" although I don't think Japanese will gain you much favours in China.
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