* this ---> [::] <--- data-blogger-escaped-means="" data-blogger-escaped-strong="">that paragraph (only!) was researched from the net
24october2008
By this stage, my sister and I were sick of eating buffet breakfast and lunch. Anyways, after another buffet breakfast at our hotel, we’ve met up with Julie at the lobby at around 8:30am. Today we’re heading off to one of the 7 Wonders of the World, “The Great Wall of China”. But before that, we went first to the “Sacred Way/Spirit Guardian”. This is the place were emperors are buried. They use to come here to pay their respect and honor their ancestors. Beautiful garden, the place is very serene. Stayed here for half an hour, then off to another buffet lunch.
[::] <---> Sacred Way is the first sight in the Ming Tombs, as it is the main road leading to the “13 Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty” or “Ming Tombs”(1402-1424 AD). It is lined with stone statues which are important decorations of the mausoleum.
It was terribly cold when we got off the car ‘coz there was a pretty strong gusts of wind outside and you could hear it from the sound of the leaves brushing with each other vigorously …maaan, it’s a beautiful sound, the sound of nature. The building/arch that housed the huge “turtle” statue inside is like the entrance to the sacred way. Julie said that we should rub its head for goodluck, of course, the gullible innocent tourists did exactly that :) would have loved to stay longer to explore the tombs but it’s a huge place and im afraid we don’t have the time because the drive to the “Great Wall” is still a long way …maybe next time ? :)
The area/district on the way to The Wall is very beautiful …the Chinese countryside. Agricultural land full of persimmon trees, apple trees and vegetable garden everywhere. Even here the highways are so wide and again manicured streets.
WAITTT, while it is true that the area on the way to TGWC(The Great Wall of China) is like the fruit basket of that province …well maybe, I was also truly fascinated as we passed by trees after trees of persimmon, fuji apples, pomegranate(you have to understand, we don’t grow these trees in the PI-Philippine Island, so please excuse my ignorance) BUT, before that drive to TGWC, let us not forget that we stopped by a Cloisonne Factory. Welll… it’s the first time that I’ve heard of it too so let me educate you about this fascinatingly beautiful pieces of art ‘coz you might have seen one of them(from the tiniest accesories to the humongous vaces) and didn’t know how they are painstakingly and meticulously crafted…
[::] <---> Cloisonné, also named enamel, is a special craft combining porcelain and copper. Created during the reign of Jingtai of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), it was only made in blue at first, so it was named 'Jingtai blue'.
…here’s how they are made… first, a thin brass wire will be pasted in an object made from red copper to create a pattern…
…then, a multi-colored powdery glaze is placed inside the spaces…
…then, it will be “cooked” in an oven and from that process, the powdery glaze inside the spaces will shrink. So the whole process of “glazing” and “cooking” is repeated 3 or 4 times until the surface is smooth…
…until finally, it is carefully and patiently polished using charcoal and stone…
…I can only imagine how long it took to finish this one…
…more so this one whose price I checked and its as expensive as a modest house at home.
Finally, reached the place. you have to take a cable car to reach the summit. I cant believe im here. I’ve only seen it on travel shows and pictures. Magnificent, the Chinese must be very proud of this heritage. Walked a few hundred meters along the “Mutianyu” Section which is apparently the most scenic among the 3 areas open to the public…
[::] <---> the MUTIANYU Great Wall is older than the BADALING section of the Great Wall. It has the largest construction scale and best quality among all sections of Great Wall. Built mainly with granite, the wall is 7-8 meters high and the top is 4-5 meters wide. Compared with other sections of Great Wall, Mutianyu Great Wall possesses unique characteristics in its construction. this section of the Great Wall is surrounded by woodland and streams. The forest-coverage rate is over 90 percent. First built in the mid-6th century(around 550AD), it was rebuilt in 1569 and till today most parts of it are still well preserved.
My first reaction when TGWC came into view was, OMIGAHDDD …I cant believe im seeing this, that im here in the flesh!!! The history of this place and how and why and when it was built came to me and I was absolutely awestrucked! We were driven by our driver as far as it was allowed and from that spot we had to take an escalator and cable car and AGAIN I felt how totally out-of-shape I was ‘coz I just walked a couple steps from the car and I was panting and gasping for air at the same time like I was about to die, and it was scary. It wasn’t until I stopped walking and took the escalator that I was able to breathe comfortably, I guess my lungs eventually got used to the high altitude, thank god for that.
On some parts of the actual Wall, there are no functional stairs. Sometimes, there are just big rocks on top of each other and I have to tell you that I have very bad ankles and knees ‘coz I have lost count of the number of times I have twisted and sprained them that they are not as flexible as it should be so climbing anywhere is not a good thing for me. BUT, this is TGWC baby and I have to do what I have to do. Immediately after you get yourself to the actual spot where you can walk the corridors of the wall, you’ll be confronted by very steep stairs with tiny steps to boot and Nnylanna took one look at it and said she cant go any further because she cannot go down using those stairs and I was like, sis, make an effort and do what I did …you don’t have to go down standing up, do it while sitting down! what’s funny is that there was a couple there on the bottom of the stairs with a camera crew taking what I assume are wedding photos …HAAA! Hang on, I think you’ll see the stairs in the 1st video clip below and you will see Nnylanna stuck in the stairs waiting for the pictorials to get done on the 2nd video clip, haha…
Its very unlikely that we would be back in this place so you bet, its “photo shoot” galore for Nnylanna and Piberg…
...My sister even made me climb one of the watchtower and pose up there but again, no stairs just rocks. Getting up there is not easy but getting down was even worse. Haay, all for this one shot below…
…yes peeps, i did manage to get down in one piece *breathes a sigh of relief* :)
byebye Great Wall. to this day, i cannot believe that i was actually there. for me, it was truly a dream come true. from the video below, you could tell that we were not too scared of that cable car ...naaa, not too scared :)
…we also bought a few souvenirs here, I cant resist them. we then headed to the restaurant for our much anticipated dinner of Peking Duck. YUMMY! After dinner was the Peking Opera. Not really looking forward watching this show, I wanted to give this a miss but my sister said “sayang bayad na”, so we ended up going. It has been a long day.
I forgot if we bought tshirts there but what I distinctly remember was when we asked how much they were the guy said 180 Yuan/RMB(renmimbi) …WHATTT!?#!?%!?! that’s X6 or 7 in peso so its more than a thousand for that polycotton shirt …maaan, my sister and I are not our mother’s daughter for nothing. We got the same shirt at the Pearl Market for 20, HA! Anyhoo, Julie was excited for us to try their famous Peking Duck, so I hated the fact that I had to break the news to her that I have already tried it at home on a number of occations, thanks anyways Julie :) watching the opera in that fancy place must be expensive so, why not go. Im sure we’ll learn something from that experience …which we did …that its not that entertaining …ahaha, no, no, no, its totally different from anything that ive seen before and it’s a glimpse at the Chinese culture and humor.
25october2008
Last day of our tour in Beijing. First stop is the Lama Temple. Both the Dalai Lama and the Pachai Lama had visited before. Apparently, one of the emperor was born here. Architecture is very much like in the Forbidden City. The tallest Buddha in the world is housed here. Very impressive, according to Julie, it was carved just from the trunk of one tree.
[::] <---> The Yonghe Temple , also known as the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple", the "Yonghe Lamasery", or - popularly - the "Lama Temple" is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism located in the northeastern part of Beijing, China. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. It was built in 1694 and is arranged along a north-south central axis, which has a length of 480m.
There’s that north-south central axis again …???
i don’t know about my sister’s claim about the Buddha being the largest in the world …ok, maybe the largest made from wood ‘coz I know there are large buddha’s made from concrete or stone. The carved part of the statue itself of the Big Buddha is 18-meter high and you cannot see the larger uncarved part because it is buried in the ground, the main part of which was carved out of one grand piece of white sandalwood. In 1990 it was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. We were not allowed to take photos here so I just stole one from the web…
2nd stop was at the Beijing Zoo to see the Giant Panda. Lucky for us that they were all out and just had breakfast and were playing among themselves. Very cute and cuddly. We didn’t go around the zoo as it is just like the zoo at home.
3rd stop, another buffet lunch Sezhuan style cooking. Not bad.
4th stop, SUMMER PALACE. The Manchu emperor built this as they were used to cold places and the weather in Beijing is hot for them during summer season, hence the reason they built this place and surrounding gardens. BEAUTIFUL, 4X the size of Forbidden city.
[::] <---> The Summer Palace started out life as the “Garden of Clear Ripples” in 1750. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design”.
…Occupying a large area of the palace grounds is The KUNMING LAKE…
[::] <---> Kunming Lake is a man-made lake. Its predecessors were called Wengshan (Jar Hill) Pond and Xihu Lake. They were reservoirs which had been used as sources of water both for the city and irrigation of fields over a period of 3,500 years. Guo Shoujing, a famous astronomer and engineer in his time, developed it into a reservoir for the capital of the Yuan Dynasty in 1291.
…Another famous and important fixture at The Summer Palace is The MARBLE BOAT…
[::] <---> The Marble Boat, also known as the Boat of Purity and Ease. It is a lakeside pavilion that was erected in 1755 on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. The original pavilion was made from a base of large stone blocks which supported a wooden superstructure done in a traditional Chinese design. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, the pavilion was destroyed by Anglo-French forces. It was restored in 1893 upon the order of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In this restoration, a new two-story superstructure was designed which incorporated elements of European architecture.
...and finally, The LONG CORRIDOR.
[::] <---> The Long Corridor is a covered walkway in the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. First erected in the middle of the 18th century, it is famous for its length (728 m) in conjunction with its rich painted decoration (more than 14,000 paintings).
Passed by the Olympic Stadium site and finally saw the Bird’s Nest during daytime, WOW!!!
Wait a minute sis, WOW!!!? I had this impression that you were not at all impressed with this place during that night tour on our first day here. i remember you saying that it looks smaller than its actual size? Im just sayin’ ...lemme check that part of the blog again ^^
We then told Julie to drop us off at the Pearl Market, so we can do a bit more shopping. After a gruelling haggling, we’ve decided to walk from here to our hotel ‘coz we cannot find a taxi. It took us an hour to walk on a liesurely fashion.
What can I say about this "unforgettable walk” …it was the LONGEST WALK OF MY LIFE!!! Was it just an hour??? When we couldn’t hail a cab, my sister was pointing to a large area across the street from where we were and said, “that is Temple of Heaven grounds and our hotel is just on the opposite side”. Of course at that time, we didn’t know that the temple grounds is almost 3 square kilometers in size …HAAA!!!
26october2008
Late breakfast, Julie will pick us up at around 9am to drive us at the airport for our flight back to Manila. Had a wonderful time in Beijing. It is my favorite among the 3 cities that I’ve visited in mainland China. It had both what Shanghai and Xian has to offer. Modern and Ancient. People here are more sophisticated. The city reminded me of Melbourne and Shanghai of Sydney. Love and fascinated by the grandeur of the Forbidden City, the open space of Tianamen Square, and the majestic Great Wall. A little envious of the Chinese people of their cultural heritage. In Beijing you can see communism at its best.
check out china's 3-wheeled car on the streets of beijing, kaaliw...
Before I end this, let me thank our very able guide Julie for being gracious and giving us a good impression of China. She displayed such loyalty and nationalism and pride when she speaks about their country and its history. Not to mention her high regard for their most redeemed "great leader", Mao Zedong whom the Chinese people fondly calls, “CHAIRMAN”. Westerners may say that they are brainwashed by the communist party, to a certain extent, maybe. but they do recognize that it was Deng Xiaoping who opened China to the world and it was he whom they owe their new found economic progress. But it was the “chaiman” that instilled this strong sense of nationalism in them. so if that is being brainwashed, I don’t see anything wrong with that. in our conversations with her, i also got this impression that the chinese people are not too fond of the Japanese. as Julie pointed out, they(japan) occupied China and taught them nothing unlike us and our former colonial master the US of A and how they built hospitals and schools and taught us the english language ...hmmm, makes sense. i guess that's the reason why they opted to give the contract for their highspeed train to germany instead of neighboring japan huh??? anyhoo, enough speculation and let me say ...Thanks Julie!!!
I had a lot to say about Japan when I ended that part of my blog and that’s because I didn’t expect much and was enormously rewarded instead with that experience that I ended up writing extensively about every little thing that happened there. In this case, even before this trip was finalized, I was already dreaming of setting foot in this country because I know more about its rich history and was very excited to see all these famous historical places with my very own eyes. if there's a word that instantly comes to ind when thinking about China, its, MASSIVE. massive developments, massive open spaces, massive buildings, etc. To this day, I cannot begin to grasp at the historical richness of this country. I was telling my sister, with China’s rapid economic progress, I wonder what this place will look like 10-20 years from now? These 2 country we have visited is a study in contrast. Here in China, those expensive European cars are everywhere. the chinese "nouveau riche" has a particular fondness for a particular brand. at first i couldnt understand what brand Julie was referring to until i saw the "4 rings", ahhh, an AUDI. I checked out the brands of things inside our hotel room and more often than not, it is a European brand name. The Chinese people are not yet as sophisticated as the Japanese, understandably so since Japan’s industrialization was ahead for a good number of years and their population is only a tiny fraction of China’s. but im hopeful that this nation’s leaders can steer this country to the right direction and do even greater things in the future. I have a feeling there is still a lot more to see in this country. My sister says she wants to go back …hmmm, not a bad idea, why not.
