China, November 1988, Part 7

Barb and Bill take their first tour of China together, along with Kate Garrett and her Mom, Mary. This post covers our second day in Beijing, seeing the Ming Tombs and Great Wall.


Saturday, November 12, 1988

Bright and early, we boarded the bus and headed northwest to our first stop, the Ming Tombs. The entrance road to the tombs (Sacred Way) is lined with statues of various guardian animals and soldiers. They are great fun for pictures. When I was there six years earlier, you could clamber onto the statues, but this time, sensibly, there were fences around each one. Still good for photos.

We’d gotten to know our fellow tour members pretty well by this point, so we took more pictures of each other.

Considering they’d been in place for about 400 years, these statues were still in quite good shape, though a few had seen some repairs over the years.

The bus parking lot was ringed by an “arcade,” tended by the most aggressive shopkeepers/hawkers we’d seen in China. They shouted out their wares in English, prefaced by “Hello!” “Hello Hats!” “Hello Silk!” For panda toys, “Hello Panda!” For the fox furs and hats, “Hello Fox!!” This last might also be heard in Brooklyn in a different context.

After 20 minutes or so in the arcade, we moved on to the actual tombs. Things seemed to have changed a lot since I had been there in 1982. As before, only one (the Dingling Tomb) of the 13 tombs has been excavated, but a new museum is housed in one of the outer buildings of the Changling tomb. This is where we headed.

There were a lot of amazing things in the museum that had been excavated from the Dingling tomb, but it was too dark for pictures. One wonders when they might get around to opening some of the other tombs. This admirable and confounding sense of archaeological patience is one we encountered elsewhere, especially Xian. The Chinese sadly learned that they were not ready to adequately excavate and preserve whatever treasures lay in the tombs, and the Dingling tomb experience seems to have been a prime and difficult learning experience. The tomb had originally been excavated in the 1950’s but many of its treasures were poorly cared for and quickly deteriorated, then many more were destroyed during the tumult of the Cultural Revolution. Better to leave the tombs to future, better prepared generations. It’s an attitude difficult to comprehend for Americans with a nation younger than the statues guarding the tombs.

Not far from the Ming Tombs, we saw a sign for the “Beijing International Golf and Country Club” which seemed like a noteworthy non-proletarian incursion by Western pleasure seekers. It’s not the first golf course in China, but the only one we saw on this trip.

We had lunch at a nearby hotel, chowing down mostly on Barb’s leftover steak sandwiches. The Long Island girls cracked out their usual lunch of canned tuna, crackers and vodka. Smiles all around, except for the tables that had neither.

After lunch we headed up the road toward the Great Wall. Once again, it was astonishing to catch the first glimpses of the wall, then progressively see more of it snake along impossible ridge lines. You see it for miles before you actually arrive at Badaling Gate.

Some background on the Great Wall, in case it’s needed.

Finally, we arrived at the Badaling Gate and got ready to start climbing the wall. It’s hard to convey the mix of awe, excitement and emotion you feel standing at the gate, about to embark. The history and almost mythic cultural importance of the structure is overwhelming, as are its actual scale, scope and steepness. We got started, taking care not to “spit and littering.”

We lucked out with a gorgeous clear day, with miles of visibility. The Badaling gate is, logically, at a low point in the mountains near Juyongguan Pass; once you’re on top of the gate, the actual wall goes up sharply in either direction. We started on the left (west?) side, for better pictures in the sun.

The ascent started out easy enough, with exhilaration fueling our steps. Mary and Kate took it slow, but this wasn’t even the steep part.

Before long, Mary gave out altogether. Kate let her rest and hustled to catch up with us.

The wall got ridiculously steep in sections. We can’t imagine soldiers or horses having to run up these slopes. We barely made it.

The views got more spectacular the higher we went.

We finally made it to what seemed the top, a guard tower with a great view. Time for some photos.

Some shots with other members of the tour.

Arriving at the top culminated a law school dream for Barb and Kate. Time for a few poses in the alma mater sweatshirt.

Barb also posed for a couple of shots in her Health and Human Services t-shirt.

Suddenly, we were overcome by the passion of the moment…

And here we will pause for a few postcard shots…

Coming back down, we noticed a man with a forlorn camel (a Bactrian!), offering to take shots for tourists. Surprising me, Barb decided that a photo on the camel was a must.

Barb started climbing up, had some second thoughts, then summoned unknown reserves of courage to get on, even if the camel was not pleased. The end result is a great few shots. We’re not sure they do this anymore with camels. Probably for the best.

As we leave the wall, we noticed someone trying to escape…or invade.

One more postcard shot for the road.

That evening, back in Beijing, it was our time for a Peking Duck dinner. Kenny, our guide, feasted on duck feet donated by all our tables. Mary discovered a taste for plum wine. It was a great meal, but we have no photos to prove it. Afterwards, at the Sheraton, we had a torrid 8-ball pool tournament. Are we not tourists?

And so we culminated a peak couple of days. Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Ming Tombs and Great Wall made memories for a lifetime, all squished in two days. It’s hard to believe, even now.


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