Day 4 started early as we gathered at 8 o’clock in the hotel lobby to meet our guide for the day, Iko. A short woman with a big personality, she immediately drew all of us into the experience. Once inside the puffer fish bus, as dubbed by Grant, Iko gave us a history of the modern Beijing transportation system. There are 6 main roads that circle the city as well as many buses and the growing subway system. We discussed jobs, salaries, and other social and economic factors of living within the city. We found out that she started her own travel company, which was very difficult, and that she has two cats that live with her parents. As we drove closer to the amazingly beautiful mountain range with jagged peaks of magnificent size, the energy level in the bus slowly started to rise. After the hundredth time of craning our necks, we were rewarded with the first sight of the Great Wall of China. Everyone was giddy and in awe of the wall, even Mr. Gannon.
We left the puffer fish bus and walked up the street leading up to the entrance of the Great Wall, trying to ignore merchants grabbing for our attention, literally. There were also food stalls with boxes over flowing with dried fruit and nuts and any kind of souvenir one could imagine. Past the frenzy of sellers, there was a huge gate that was the entrance to the chairlift to take us to the Wall. Much to everyone’s excitement, we were taking toboggans down the hill! We doubled up to get on the chairlifts, which was really odd without skis attached to our feet. The ride up was long, but high. Yes, we were in mountains, and some of us took the height of the lift better than others. Zeena, unfortunately, was one of those who didn’t like the height and was not happy; meanwhile Eric, being his usual self, videoed her suffering to show to all of us later. Getting off the lift was a bit of a trip: we had to stand up quickly and move off to the side, which was a foreign idea to some of us—we screamed at the next arrivals "get off, get off!"
The steps that lead up to the wall were steep and high, but we all rushed up, including Ms. Smith. The top of the wall was stunning: the vast wall stretched out on either side as far as the eye could see, going up and down the mountainside. On the other side of the mountains is Mongolia, which is one of the reasons that the wall was built. The Mongolians kept trying to invade because the Chinese had better resourses, but, after building the wall, in order to keep relations balanced, the Chinese built resorts for Mongolian officials near the Great Wall. We had an hour and a half to explore, so we set off. At first we all stayed together, marveling over the Wall and taking lots of pictures, but soon we all dispersed. Mr. Gannon and Mr. Sarget led the pack, by a good distance, to the goal of the highest of the guard tower on our section of the mountain. Next Margaret and I determinedly worked our way up, taking many water/breathing/food breaks to ease our burning lungs. After us, the rest of the young came, Grant & Simon in front, then Zeena, Eric, and Helen. The Sibley Sisters came next while Ms. Smith went down the mountain before the rest of us, thankful that no one would see her on the tobaggon. On top of the wall are vendors who came up every day with their food and water for the pooped tourists; they come from a small village on the other side of the wall, using mules to tote their products.
Lunch consisted of yet another traditional Chinese meal, and we happily dug in to our pork, tomatoes and eggs, rice, and other dishes. Our conversation, however, was not as diverse as our meal. We talked extensively of spirit week and senior pranks; however trivial, the students found it to be a very important topic. Eric slowly got more stressed out, while Helen threw out outrageous ideas for pranks that Mr. Gannon happily vetoed. As we got back on the bus, our conversation still flowed towards more school oriented, almost academic, topics.
Our afternoon adventure was the Ming tombs. These tombs of the 13 Ming Dynasty emperors (14th-17th centuries) are located on a hill about an hour outside of the city. Only one of the 13 tombs has been excavated, which confused us. China has the money to excavate the cites, and they obviously know what’s in them, but they wouldn’t let archeologists excavate them. The reason we were told is because they didn’t have the recourses to preserve everything after they were taken out of the tomb. The tomb that we did see was the Ding Ling tomb, which was rather small and less ornate than we thought it to be, with its treasures displayed in a separate museum. The complex around it was just as we imagined, with a temple and a pagoda; it reached all the grandeur the Chinese had exhibited to us before. We walked down stairs into the tomb, which was 27 meters under ground. We entered into the East Chamber and were disappointed by a simple marble room that consisted of a ‘well’ with money flowing out of it. There is a hole in the ground where people threw money for good luck, very important for the Chinese. The next chamber, the Central chamber, had the thrones of the emperor and the empresses. They were marble once again and ornate with dragons and flower. There were several small jars that were in front of the throne and a big white and blue porcelain pot. The Main Chamber contained coffins: one big red box in the middle, which held the emperor’s coffin and two smaller red ones on either side that housed the empress’ coffins. Lots of smaller red boxes that surrounded the coffins contained everything they would need in the afterlife. What we saw were all replicas, the real ones having been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The true entrance to the tomb had a huge marble door that was locked from the inside. It had the traditional 9 by 9 golden knobs on the door, which represented the power of the emperor. The arch that hung over the door was very ornate and bowed to support the weight in a way that the doors would open easily. As part of the Ming Tombs complex, there is a Sacred Row, which features a long road of stone statues: 12 human figures including re are civil officers and generals, as well as 24 animals including a horse, lion, camel, elephant, and mythical figures. They all represented some form of luck as well as well as an entrance to the actual tombs. Our drive back to the city consisted of soft conversation and some people sleeping. For 5 minutes we experienced complete silence--probably the longest silence on the trip. The sleepers woke up as the van pulled into the city on our way to the Olympic Park.
The theme of awe continued as we stood under the Birds Nest. The structure towered over us with a majestic power. The water cube, a short distance away, with its bubbled structure confounded our party as we stared at what seemed to be translucent plastic. The Park was teaming with vendors chasing us down to sell kites and books on Beijing. By now we have all gotten use to saying bu-yo, or no.
This leads to our next adventure of finding a dinner place. We were all craving some not Chinese food, but who wants to go to McDonalds? Luckily, Iko knew of a restaurant that serves American food. With much excitement we all filed out of the bus, saying shi-shi ni (thank you) and good-bye to Iko. The restaurant was like an old grandmother's house, with warn couches and cute little tables. The menu was even more exciting: breakfast, sandwiches, pizza, and every classic American food you can imagine. Unfortunately there was no bathroom in the restaurant, and we would have to use the public bathroom down the street. The idea of this appalled Ms. Smith so badly, an emotion reflected in her facial expression, that Eric and Mrs. Sibly were crying as they could not stop laughing.
With full stomachs and not feeling like dumplings for the first time, we needed to figure out how to get back to the hotel. Ms. Smith decided that this seemed to be an appropriate time to go stand out in the very quiet side street, and try to flag down a taxi, which finally came only after an emergency call to our hotel led to the dispatching of taxis in our direction. Dancing around in the cold did little good so we went to wait in the warmth, but as soon as we got inside, we were all rushed back out onto the street because a taxi pulled up. Ms. Smith, Margaret, and I jumped in and sped off, just as three other taxis pulled up. Our ride was pleasant as we watched the architecture flit by with all the neon lights lighting up the city. After being dropped off at the wrong hotel on our street, we walked the rest of the way. Two taxis passed with group members who waved at us with smug smiles from the warmth of their cars. When we got to the hotel, we learned that Zeena and Simon had to wait a very long time for a taxi, and the chaperones and Eric anxiously waited outside to greet the latecomers. Finally two figures were slowly making their way down the alley, and Eric started calling for Zeena. When they came into view he rushed to her side like a worried mother. All the adults let out a sigh of relief, happy that the missing ones were safe and that the one person in the group who can speak Chinese (Simon) had arrived safely at our hotung hotel. It's sad to be leaving already, but there is also an anticipation of going to Shanghi by an overnight train. So wish us luck on our adventure tomorrow!
-Hayley
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Location:Beijing, China
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