Beijing Day 2 - The Ming Tombs

Today my tour guide is Michael... Quite the opposite of yesterday, i was the last one picked up this morning..which i was pleased with, as I was soo tired from Day 1 of touring, topped off with bargaining at the Silk Market... As I make my way to the back of the minibus, i scanned the other passengers: Two Indian gentlemen, an Asian couple (found out later they were Japanese, and quite young), another Asian couple (definitely chinese) and can't remember who else we had with us. Today we are only doing 2 places..Ming Tomb and The Great Wall...and of course two stops to places the tour company has a contract with for bringing them customers.... the Jade and the Silk Market.

Off we go to the Ming Tombs... Nice drive into the countryside...the tour guide points out the traffic on the other side of the road...the traffic going to the Great Wall... Now I am beginning to understand what my coworkers meant when they said it would be crowded... New York or California traffic is nothing compared to this. Oh well...I will deal with that later, when we are actually in that traffic....

We get to the Ming Tombs, and I am about to die of thirst... The day I forget to bring my own water... A 1RMB bottle of water is now 10RMB. I give her 20 and she hands me two bottles of water....Noooooo....I want one water, and my 10RMB back in change.... These people are so slick.....

The Ming Tombs is where the Emperors are buried. I forget how many TOmbs there are, but only 2 are open to the public. WHen an emperor dies, any childless concubine of his, kills herself, and her ashes are burned in a Urn... Great place for a picture...only my tour guide says the Chinese frowns upon that, as it's bad luck....Great, thanks for telling me, after I took the picture....



Inside the tomb is a replica of an Emperor....huge big belly man sitting on a thrown... i think his stomach actually has a place on the chair....No one is sure if the Emperor really looks like the replica, as these were made years or maybe even centuries after they died....The emperor's as well as the empresses headpieces are displaced. Evidently, these were very short people as these headpieces are so high...and heavy... THey must have had necks of steel to wear those things for long periods of time on their heads.












My group is looking at the gold implements such as cutlery, pots and pans, the emperors were buried with... i guess they planned to do a lot of cooking in the grave.... All of sudden, we are about to be trampled! A group of about 50 chinese tourists, comes stampeding around the corner... in a second, it was all over.... Our tour guide, skinny as he was, was trying to shield us from the stampeding locals...They have no concept or order or one at a time, and no one wants to be last, so as soon as their tour guide raised his flag for them to move on, all 50 proceeded to move at the SAME TIME!!!....Looking back now, I am dying with laughter.....

By now, we should all be familiar with the Chinese custom of Feng Shui...so all the doorways or entrances to all their buildings are about 2 feet high..You have to lift up your feet to cross over. These high entrances are to keep the evil spirt out and keep the wealth in... Ummmmmh... I guess the spirits don't know how to lift their feet up..... Everydoorway msut be crossed in this order: A lady enters first with her right foot, then the left...men do the opposite....When you are leaving the tombs...you chant (in chinese) something to the effect of 'material world i have returned'...And as you are saying it, you are jumping over the doorway... i guess trampling the spirits, or making sure you don't take any home with you....It sure was a comical sight to hear all the commotion from all the groups chanting and jumping over the entrance, as they exited the Ming Tombs.....

Now we are off to lunch, but not before a stop at the Jade Market first.... We get a tour of how Jade is made... actually see workers through the class, cutting the jade with these antiquated machinery, looking like a sewing machine.... The jade is in water, as i guess it's easier to work with wet.... There are tons of sales people ready to sell us different jade items...necklaces, ring, the family ball- three intertwined circles which represent a family unit (can't remember the real name), jade carvings, and tons of other grossly overpriced jade items...I was about to purchase a necklace for my mom, when one of the other passengers on my bus said you can get that cheaper in Shanghai.. I already had the receipt the sales lady gave me to go pay for the item with the cashier...so you know she was mad when i never came back to pick it up...lol.... I opted instead for a ball (intertwined circle)...Imagine my disappointment when i got home to the states, and it was in pieces. It was in a box, in my hand luggage, and still broke...great...what a waste of my 120RMB. Evidently there is a minimum time for us to remain in the Jade Market (give them enough time to hoodwink us), as it wasn't till about 1/2 hour later before our tour guide surfaced.... Finally, off to lunch and then Great Wall....