We took a tour which included a jade factory, the ming tombs, a silk factory the great wall and a tea ceremony! It was a very full and fulfilling day :D
The Great Wall was obviously the Highlight of the day ;) Everything else was really fun to see and interesting but it was also very touristy and a way for them to try and sale to us.
At the Jade Factory we learned about the history of Jade and how it is symbolic to families. Families will pass down jade bangles to their daughters and many have been around for several generations. It is believed that while wearing the jade it absorbs your minerals so it holds a piece of you in it, so its very special to have your grandmother or mothers jade bangle. Another thing I thought was interesting was the Jade Eternity Balls. They are really pretty and represent the importance of families and always keeping them close to you.
After the Jade factory we made our way to the Ming Tombs!! At the beginning of the ming tombs was a dragon turtle and its believed that if you touch his mouth you will be blessed with wealth. Everyone there was crowding around trying to touch the mouth,we figured it was worth a try-so here is a picture of Tanner and I making sure we got our turn at being wealthy!
There was an entrance to the grounds of the tombs but you were not allowed to go through it, we had to go around it. If we went through the entrance on the way in it is symbolic of entering down into the underworld... and none of us really wanted that!!
Here is a group of tourist coming out of the tombs, so this time they had to go through the entrance. You had to walk through and shake off all the evil spirits and then promise to not look back.
Going down into the tombs was pretty interesting, the actual casket and the emperor were not in there anymore, just boxes representing where it was. I'm not sure why, but I figured they would still be in there along with all his prized possessions he was burried with. They did atleast have his throne and his empresses throne down there and if you threw money onto them you were given good luck.
This is a picture of the emperors gravestone... I thought it was pretty impressive!
Finally after all of this we headed to the GREAT WALL!!! :) :) :) Even now thinking about it, I feel like it was a dream. The car ride to the wall was a couple hours long... we were all very anxious and got a little silly!! One point Andrea had her head out the vans window barking like a dog- she was the most impressive dark bark I have every heard!!
At the Great Wall we only had a couple hours to spend there, so instead of using 45 minutes to climbed to the Wall we got to ride a little cable car up to the top! We had not really seen the wall yet until half way up we came over the mountain ridge and there was the Great Wall right in front of us!!!!
We are all in complete happiness from that moment on!! We were really luckily to have picked a spot on the wall that was not overcrowded, this was it was mostly just us and the wall :)
The wall was a lot steeper than imagined... here I am climbing a piece of the wall that pretty much went straight up!! I can't imagine trying to run up and down the stairs in an attempt to defend China!
We got in our typical pictures... Everywhere we go we try to get in a good jumping and kung fu picture!!
The whole time I was on the wall I was in aww, It was unbelievable to be at such a historical landmark! Beijing in general was so much fun to be at and to know it all has so much history, now that I have been to these places I need to go home and study the history of it better!
It was hard to leave, I just wanted to soak as much of it in as possible... but at least when we had to go we got to go down in a pretty excited way, we took a Toboggan down! Here is Erin and I getting ready to go down... I look a little scared but really I was excited!!
I don't know how the day could have gotten any better! Not only did we get to see the Great Wall but we got to ride a Toboggan down from it!
Everything after that was exciting, but just couldn't compare. We went to a silk market and were able to see the process of how silk is made and we also went to a tea ceremony. It was interesting to participate in. You had to drink different types of teas certain ways, one type we had to slurp others, another after you drank it you had to smack your lips and some of them you had to have your pinky out to drink it :)
I'm pretty sure this day is up there with my best days ever! :D
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