It is Charlotte’s birthday.
We arrive in Beijing, meet Linda, our new guide, check into the Sun World Hotel; wow this huge city is even more modern and grand than when we last saw it in 2003. We see lots of Olympic improvements. Linda gives us a couple of hours to have breakfast, unpack and shower then we are off to visit Tian’amen square, the Forbidden City and the Silk Market. China Highlights – the tour company we arranged our tours through presented Charlotte and Linda with a birthday cake.
Someplace during the past few days I must have caught a bug that I really didn’t need. In the middle of the night I was chilled and had the start of a sore throat.
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Today it is windy and cold. We scoped out Tiananmen Square – HUGE! We walked through the Forbidden City. I need to watch “The Last Emperor” to see it portrayed in the movie. It was obviously built to impress with the emperor’s power. Imagine how that would limit a person’s live. There are 9999 rooms in the Forbidden City. If you slept in a different room every night, it would take you to the age of over 27 to sleep in all the rooms. 3000 concubines lived in the Forbidden City and were buried alive when the Emperor died – up to the 17th century. Beijing has a population of 14 million. Fran
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1 April
Today is Linda’s birthday. The group has elected to have a joint celebration when we have a “free” evening.
On our way to see the Great Wall of China, we have lunch in a beautiful, partially outdoor restaurant. “The Wall” is still great, even after 2,700 years. A cable car takes us up the mountain and we explore the top of the wall in both directions. At this location, only about 3 miles of the Wall has been restored and open to tourists. Some of it is a steep, challenging climb, lots of steps. The top is about 20 feet wide with stone sidewalls that rise 4 or 5 feet above the deck. The height varies with the terrain between 35 feet and about 40 feet. Over the centuries of construction, so many thousands of lives were lost that some local communities, secretly, called it the “Wall of Death”.
On the way back to Beijing, I start with the chills again and forgo a Ming Tomb tour.
In the evening, we see Kung Fu. The Kung Fu show is actually a very dynamic ballet; both interesting and entertaining.
Chills and coughing plague me all night.
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We started the day with a trip through Olympic Village: the Bird’s Nest and the Olympic tower – WOW!
Walked through Ming Tombs – “Ding Ling” was interesting.
We also walked the Sacred Way, the huge processional road to the tombs lined on either side with lovely groomed weeping willows just leafing out and huge carved stone statues of soldiers and animals to guard the way – very impressive. In the afternoon we went to the Great Wall (one refurbished section), and walked on the wall for a couple of hours. It is beyond words – to think of what it took to build this structure! The cable car ride gave us some great views of the sections we didn’t have time to walk.
In the evening we went to “The Legend of Kung Fu” – a combination of ballet, martial arts display, soap opera, and musical, kind of neat but very LOUD. Fran