Off to China!

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Geo: 39.9056, 116.396

On March 1st we travel to China. A long flight with a layover in Brisbane. We arrive on the March 2nd into Beijing.

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Photos

Entrance to the Ming Tomb
The entrance was lined with statues of animals that followed the obelisk that you see in the foreground. The first animal was always the lion to protect the emperor. Other animals followed (elephants, rams, warriors, etc.) ending with the mythical animals (i.e. dragons). The rooftops of the buildings also had smaller versions of the animals adorning them as well (see photo later in the Forbidden City for detail).

A Government Factory making Beautiful pots
These pots begin as copper pots. Then copper wires is soldered on to create the patterns. The area between the wires was filled with colorful ceramics (as seen in photo). Yellow used to be reserved only for the Royal family but is now for everyone. The pots were fired and polished. After that gold was soldered onto the copper wires creating works of art. The Blue pottery were the most popular version of this pottery.

Riding up to the Great Wall at Mutianyu
Darold and our tour guide ride the "Gondola" up to the Great Wall at the Mutianyu Section. As you can see it is a chair lift but they called it a Gondola. Look Ma - no skiis!

Great Wall at the Mutianyu Section
The Great Wall was a highlight of our trip. It is amazing. It boggles my mind to realize that this is the only man made structure that can be seen from the moon! It is over 6000 Km long, built over mountains, plains, etc. There is a bastion about every 200 meters and it is about 20 feet wide and 16 feet high.

Rooftop at the Forbidden City
This rooftop was in the NW corner of the Forbidden City where the concubines lived. Note the order of the animals beginning with the lion and ending with a dragon.