(Drew)Ok well it seems that i get the blog on days that i sleep in and have to rush to breakfast and eat as much as i can as fast as i can, or maybe that's every morning so its not a coincidence at all.. oh well. So we started by going directly to the wall. The part of the wall that we were visiting was about 90 kilometers outside Beijing. We all bundled up because we knew it was going to be freezing, not only was the wall at a higher elevation than the already freezing Beijing but you are also exposed to the wind on top of the wall. When we got there it turned out to be not that bad, the hike up and down the wall (which is much more difficult than it looks) kept us warm. The wall was full of vendors that saw a large group of foreigners so of course they began to flock around us. Some of the hand done work by the vendors was actually quite good and our group could not resist. I bought two cheap pieces of hand done art on the wall, Terry bought a similar piece to me and Nick got a small gold Buddha. We spent about an hour up on the wall and with a quick stop at the Beijing 2008 Olympic store near the parking lot we were on our way to the Ming Dynasty Tomb.
The group got the munchies just before entering the tomb and sort of stopped on the side of the road for some PB&J sandwiches... SO good. After satisfying our stomachs we went through an exhibit and watched a short movie on the first exploration of the Ming Tomb. The entire tomb is built into a man made hill which a massive hole was dug, the tomb built and then recovered. The tomb was made by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty which took a massive amount of money equivalent to two years salary of all of China during that time. The Ming Tomb has thirteen emperors buried there but the government has only allowed a small portion to be excavated and opened to the public. The entire underground is built of marble with massive marble doors. The tomb was slightly eerie but very cool at the same time.
After the Tombs we headed to the government sanctioned enamel wear factory which is located only in beijing because enamel used to be only for emperors and not used by civilians. The factory was sort of a compound with different buildings for different purposes. The first part we entered our guide took us through what each step looked like and explained in a basic way each step of the process. We went on to see each process actually happening in the factory. The first process is the laying of the design in metal along the surface of the metal container with glue. Each person has to train for about a year before they are proficient enough to lay the metal. In the next step basic colors are added with the artistic eye of whoever happens to be doing that piece so each piece turns out a little different. The container is then fired in a kiln at 800 degrees celcius and once it cools is grinded with different rocks to give it that smooth and shiny look. They opened up thier gift shop for us and we browsed around. Again we couldnt resist the temptation..
OK wait somthing really crazy just happened as im writing my blog me and nick heard sirens coming towards the hotel really loud so we ran over to the window and just as we got there we saw a high speed chase go right by our hotel, wow...
back to the blog... we couldnt resist the temptation to buy some gifts for back home the enamel is quite gorgeous. Back on the bus we headed to our big peking duck dinner. Originally i had thought that the peking duck was not going to be a somthing i enjoyed but i was very wrong. The duck meal was very good especially dipped in the special sauce they put out for us, i even tried some of the head meat and brain, yum. Once out stomachs were full once again we headed off to the peking opera.
Yet again i had the misconception that the peking opera would not be to my liking, this was possibly the biggest misconception yet. I am not exagerating when i say that it was one of the most entertaining half hour segments of this trip. The segment of peking opera that we watched was an introduction the the story of the monkey king. The monkey king was mischevious and broke into the party that the jade emperor was throwing. The monkey ate the very rare and valuable peaches that make you live forever but can only be harvested once every 3000 years. The jade emperor was very mad and sent a group of supernatural warriors to engage the monkey king in combat. Whoever the actor was that played the monkey king along with the warriors he fought were very talented. They fought with amazing speed and coreography. The monkey king was by far the most skilled i have ever seen someone with a bow staff. He twirled the bow staff as he took on many enemies at once. In the end he stood undefeated. If you dont believe my enjoyment of the show you can ask the rest of team china what the expression on my face looked like as i watched. They described it afterwards as a kid going into a candy store for his first time.
I am quite tired and becoming slightly nervous about actually being in Hangzhou in several days. Until next time, Drew.
The group got the munchies just before entering the tomb and sort of stopped on the side of the road for some PB&J sandwiches... SO good. After satisfying our stomachs we went through an exhibit and watched a short movie on the first exploration of the Ming Tomb. The entire tomb is built into a man made hill which a massive hole was dug, the tomb built and then recovered. The tomb was made by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty which took a massive amount of money equivalent to two years salary of all of China during that time. The Ming Tomb has thirteen emperors buried there but the government has only allowed a small portion to be excavated and opened to the public. The entire underground is built of marble with massive marble doors. The tomb was slightly eerie but very cool at the same time.
After the Tombs we headed to the government sanctioned enamel wear factory which is located only in beijing because enamel used to be only for emperors and not used by civilians. The factory was sort of a compound with different buildings for different purposes. The first part we entered our guide took us through what each step looked like and explained in a basic way each step of the process. We went on to see each process actually happening in the factory. The first process is the laying of the design in metal along the surface of the metal container with glue. Each person has to train for about a year before they are proficient enough to lay the metal. In the next step basic colors are added with the artistic eye of whoever happens to be doing that piece so each piece turns out a little different. The container is then fired in a kiln at 800 degrees celcius and once it cools is grinded with different rocks to give it that smooth and shiny look. They opened up thier gift shop for us and we browsed around. Again we couldnt resist the temptation..
OK wait somthing really crazy just happened as im writing my blog me and nick heard sirens coming towards the hotel really loud so we ran over to the window and just as we got there we saw a high speed chase go right by our hotel, wow...
back to the blog... we couldnt resist the temptation to buy some gifts for back home the enamel is quite gorgeous. Back on the bus we headed to our big peking duck dinner. Originally i had thought that the peking duck was not going to be a somthing i enjoyed but i was very wrong. The duck meal was very good especially dipped in the special sauce they put out for us, i even tried some of the head meat and brain, yum. Once out stomachs were full once again we headed off to the peking opera.
Yet again i had the misconception that the peking opera would not be to my liking, this was possibly the biggest misconception yet. I am not exagerating when i say that it was one of the most entertaining half hour segments of this trip. The segment of peking opera that we watched was an introduction the the story of the monkey king. The monkey king was mischevious and broke into the party that the jade emperor was throwing. The monkey ate the very rare and valuable peaches that make you live forever but can only be harvested once every 3000 years. The jade emperor was very mad and sent a group of supernatural warriors to engage the monkey king in combat. Whoever the actor was that played the monkey king along with the warriors he fought were very talented. They fought with amazing speed and coreography. The monkey king was by far the most skilled i have ever seen someone with a bow staff. He twirled the bow staff as he took on many enemies at once. In the end he stood undefeated. If you dont believe my enjoyment of the show you can ask the rest of team china what the expression on my face looked like as i watched. They described it afterwards as a kid going into a candy store for his first time.
I am quite tired and becoming slightly nervous about actually being in Hangzhou in several days. Until next time, Drew.
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