Today we climbed the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century bc; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 bc by Qin Shihuang, the first Emperor of China. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty.
It is going to be 37 today so it was good we did this in the morning. There weren't many of us who climbed to the second tower. Jody and Stephen only did the first tower but Mark, Donna, Noel, Janice and I made it to the second. The knees won't be happy tomorrow. The wall is a magnificent sight and the view from the second tower was amazing. I am happy I have now ticked climbing it off my bucket list. Stephen wanted me to take his camera and take photos for him but my philosophy is if you want the photo you got to earn it and climb it.
We stopped for lunch at a Chinese Cloisonne factory. This is a kind of artwork made of red copper roughcast and decorated colorful glaze. It was well known in the time of Jingtai of Ming Dynasty (1450--1456) for the most exquisite production. When produced, the first is to make the roughcasts of various vessels with red copper, such as vase, dish, jar, box and so on. Then the second is to inlay flower pattern with staved copper wires and weld on roughcasts to form the pattern frame. On the spaces there are full of many orderly and beautiful Jindi Patterns that are filled with colorful glazes later. After the roughcasts are put into a stove for burn, they are polished to be bright. Polishing is using coarse sand, fine sand, yellow stone and charcoal in turns until blue roughcasts and copper wires are clean and smooth. The last is to increase the luster, protect against rust and then plate gold and reach the effect of brilliance and effulgence. Amazing work that takes a lot of patience and time.
After lunch we went to take a walk along one of the Sacred Way which is one of Ming Tombs' and is the best preserved and complete. It starts with a huge stone memorial archway lying at the front of the area. Constructed in 1540, during the Ming Dynasty, this archway is the earliest and biggest stone archway existing in China today. Farther in, the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion can be seen. Inside it, there lies a 50-ton tortoise carrying a stone tablet. A white marble Huabiao (ornamental pillar) is positioned at each corner of the steel pavilion. At the top of each is stationed a mythical beast facing either inward or outward, expressing hope that the emperor will neither cling to the palace nor forget to return to the Palace to handle state affairs. Then come two Roof Pillars on each side of the road, whose surfaces are carved with the cloud design, and tops are shaped like a rounded cylinder. After the 18 pairs of stone statues which are all sculpted from whole stones, and larger than life size, comes the Dragon and Phoenix Gate. It was originally built to lead to the Changling mausoleum. Afterwards, twelve more mausoleums were built.
It was a very pleasant walk along the tree lined boulevard taking in all the statues along the way however only, Mark, Donna, Noel, Dorothy, Mitch and I took the walk the others cheated and went by golf buggy.
Sick of Chinese food Mark, Donna, Noel and I went to the Hotel restaurant for a expensive hamburger whilst Jody and Stephen had Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Fitbit steps 13,093, 8.71km
