Groggy from our super-early wake up call, we re-boarded the tour bus ("How'd Y'all sleep?") for the second amazing day of our whirlwind Beijing tour... We were happy to have Eileen, Will and Angela with us again for the day as we set off towards the Ming Tombs, the burial place of 13 of the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, located about 40km outside Beijing. The main buildings were pretty impressive, complete with Ming pottery and a giant bronze statue of a nameless emperor surrounded by a giant pile of money... I honestly thought some of the hungrier-looking tourists were about to make a dive for it.
The tombs were pretty cool, but we were all itching to get our first glimpse of the Great Wall, which was initially delayed by lunch and then again by a side trip to a stupid jade factory: a thinly disguised attempt to hard-sell jade trinkets to a very captive audience. I was pretty upset at the fact that a normally reliable travel agency like Trailfinders (the company in London that booked us) would sub-contract tours with vendors that force unscheduled shopping stopovers... ahem, I mean "educational visits..." to factory outlets. Oh well.
Finally, there it was: the Great Wall of China, clinging to the side of the mountainous terrain, directly beside the freeway. It seemed completely incongruous to first see this awesome and ancient thing in the same view with billboard advertisements and a roadside 7-11, but hey: this is China. We continued to follow the length of the wall for about 20 more minutes until we finally arrived at the Badaling section, our final destination. Although the Badaling section of the wall isn't the oldest, it is one of the most picturesque (and one of the most visited).
Upon arriving, our tour guide attempted to give us a brief introduction to the overall history of the place, but we were practically running towards the entry gates. Once inside, we noticed that most of the tourists were heading up the hill to our right; we instinctively headed left towards an apparently shorter and less dramatic section with far fewer people... This was without a doubt the smartest decision of the day. The moment we walked up and over the short section of wall directly in front of us, we saw a vast, empty stretch of the wall in front of us, snaking across the hillside towards the horizon... The day was again bright and clear with no haze (or crowds of people) obstructing the view of the surrounding mountains. We walked around lazily for about 2 hours, taking tons of photos and soaking up the clean, fresh air. Absolutely amazing. I had psyched myself into thinking that the Great Wall would be a disappointment, and boy, was I dead wrong. One of the most amazing travel experiences of my life.
A final note: The postcard and souvenir vendors that stakeout the Great Wall are some the most aggressive and persistent that either of us have ever encountered... giving the taxi drivers in India a run for their money in the award for the world's most obnoxious touts. Anecdotes of their wild attempts to make a sale are legendary amongst all visitors to the Great Wall. The photo of the Chinese man with his hand to his face is in my opinion, one of the best photos I've ever taken: this was his exhausted expression after he initiated a long interaction with Paul, which completely revolved around his desperate attempts to sell a rather weather-beaten book of old postcards. It makes me laugh.
We are now in Bangkok, relaxing at our good friend Saz's modern condo, basking in the swelter of the sub-tropical heat... The Moms both arrive in Thailand later today, so much more to write about in the very near future.
x Jason
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