We started the day off with and Asian buffet breakfast. I swear some of the things they eat just are not the smells you want to encounter at 7:30 in the morning. But I am sure that they think that of some western food too.
At 8:15 we were out the door on our way to the Great Wall of China. This is a 40 minute drive north out of Beijing. But first we stopped at a jade store/demonstration factory. Things we learned about buying jade were that real jade will show light through a special monocular where fake jade will show black. Also real jade when hit with a hard object like a coin on it's side will ring like a wine glass. We also learned that the Chinese believe that if you keep a carved jade Chinese cabbage in your house with the roots facing in the room money will come into your home. If the roots face out money will go out of your home. There are also numerous types of jade in different colors. It was interesting to go through but for me felt like a delay from the thing I was more interested in, The Great Wall.
After the jade, factory we headed to the portion of the Great Wall that is the Bandaling portion. This portion was rebuilt by volunteers. This is one of the most frequently visited sections of the Great Wall. To stand on a piece of history that has been around for 2000 years is amazing. It was truly a moving experience. We met people from all over the world as we hiked the wall. Young and old from all walks of life. If the walls could talk what amazing pieces of history could they tell us here. There were 1820 steps according to our guide. Who needs a stair master that day.
Sadly, the dust in the air limited a full sky view of how long the sections that were present went on for. Our guide told us that the Great Wall stretches from the Gobi desert to the East China Sea. In length, it is 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) long. To put that into perspective, according to mapquest.com if you drove from Key West Florida to Seattle Washington it is a distance of 3526 miles. Pretty amazing isn't it?
Once we finished with hiking the Great Wall we stopped at a Chinese Enamel factory/store. Here they demonstrated the whole process of how they make the enamel vases and other things. They start with a copper shape. Then they use a laid out pattern and form the individual pieces of the design using 1mm thick copper. This is all shaped and carefully laid out on the pattern. The copper outline is then attached to the base object such as a vase. Using an eye dropper they use a mix of enamel and water to drop in color into each portion of the pattern. After they have filled in the whole pattern they fire it in a 800 C oven. If any of the enamel sinks into the pattern. The piece is sent back to the fillers and is filled back in. This takes many times depending on the size of the piece when all the enamel is even with the copper wiring. The vase is sanded and polished. Very cool process to watch. I have a new found respect for this art form after our visit.
We had lunch at the enamel factory and were given a free bottle of the local alcohol. They did not tell us the name of it but the big selling point was 56% alcohol. We took our bottle of paint thinner (Just kidding of course) with us and will try it when we have guests to visit. In the afternoon we visited Ming's tomb and the Summer Palace. Ming's tomb was interesting however, the underground palace was not open to visitors.
The Summer Palace is definitely somewhere you should visit if you are ever in Beijing. This is a beautiful Palace grounds that is on a very large lake. The lake is completely surrounded by a wall. It is hard to describe the beauty of such a place in words. The lake was actually used for a practice area by the royal navy for a time. The gardens here were beautiful and both of us really enjoyed it. We would have liked to have spent more time here as we did not see every nook and cranny of this place. One of the downfalls of the tour is the rush through things to make sure you can get in as much as possible each day.
After the summer palace we were taken to a fresh water pearl store. At this store they showed us that a fresh water pearl can grow 40 or more pearls in one shell unlike a salt water oyster which can only grow one. Pearl colors depend on what they are feeding on. The flesh of a mussel that is being harvested for the pearls is not eaten because all the nutrients went into the making of the pearl. How to tell a real pearl from a fake. Rub two pearls on the string together. They should make the teeth grinding sound and when you rub one of the pearls against your hand that you have rubbed a white powder should come off. This will not harm the pearls.
Next we went to an oriental medicine clinic. At this clinic they educate people on what oriental medicine is about. We also got foot rubs if we wanted them. I, of course, took advantage of the offer especially after hiking the Great Wall. The whole realm of oriental medicine is interesting especially since it is so unknown to most westerners. The basis of oriental medicine is to take care of the root of the problem. After our visit to the Oriental medicine clinic we went to dinner at a restaurant that served dishes emperor style.
What a day. The things that are a little annoying is the dog and pony show bit where they haul you in and out of the various gift shops that they choose and have you proceed at their pace at various stops that you may want to see more of. Oh well, such is life. The good still out ways the bad.