It should take about 40 minutes
Hello! Today we went to the Ming tombs and the Summer Palace. You can watch as our day unfolded...
Let me explain the title for everyone. Our Beijing tour guide, William, is not exactly the best tour guide that we’ve had on this trip. Whenever we would ask him how long something takes, he usually responds with “about 40 minutes.” We’ve kind of made it a joke now. However, today he used 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and even 45 minutes. We were excited.
We started our journey with a trip to the Jade factory and spent a little money. They had jade everything. Did you know that the Olympic medals this year have jade in them? Yep. Each place has a different color. Since jade is a living stone, real jade actually changes color the more you wear it. A lot of Chinese women wear the jade bangle to keep them healthy.
From there it took “about 40 minutes” to get to the walkway of the Ming tombs (just kidding, it only took about 15). We were expecting the walkway to lead to the tombs, but after walking a very long walk, we learned we had to cross the street and get back on the bus. A 10-minute bus ride later, we got to the actual tombs, but only the last emperor buried has been dug up. They’ve excavated one tomb and the other 12 are still untouched. We walked around the tomb area which was nice and extravagant. We got to go to the underground chambers where the coffins actually were placed (the real ones weren’t there).
After getting to look out over where all of the other tombs were, we got back on the bus and went to lunch. This lunch was actually in a vase making factory. It was kind of weird. There was an extremely large shopping area attached to this restaurant. This man had begun his restaurant and his side business a long time ago, and now it’s this huge store with tons of stuff. The food was alright, but we had been accustomed to the Papa John’s in the mall and weren’t too thrilled when the waitress came to show us how to eat the large fish (the actual whole fish with a face and everything) by smushing it open. I don’t think she understood that we knew how to eat it, we just didn’t want it.
The Summer Palace was next. We went to see where the royal family went during the hot summers to chill out. The emperor of course had his front business area, but then the rest of the HUGE complex was devoted to chillaxing in the summer. This is also where the longest corridor in the world is located. We walked the whole thing twice. It’s very nice and breezy, which we appreciated since it was about 34 degrees centigrade. The corridor was along the nice ginormous man-made lake which was gorgeous. The summer palace has actually been burnt down before, but has been rebuilt. The Dragan Lady, or actually empress Sushi (that’s how William said it), had it rebuilt with the money that was suppose to go into the Navy. She thought a luxurious place to go was more important than the defenses of her royal Navy.
After getting back to the hotel, we went back to the mall for some more pizza. I didn’t tell you about our cute little waitress. Oh goodness. Our waitress, Si Si, was the cutest little thing in the whole world. Each time we came in there, her face would just shine with joy. She got so excited when we asked to take a picture with her Saturday night. She just flipped. Well, tonight we brought her a Centenary shirt and a pennant. After our meal, she was very very sad when we told her it was our last night in Beijing. When we left she said, “Now I’m sad because you go. If you stay and come tomorrow, I be happy!” She was pretty much the cutest thing ever. She’s also a college student and is 22. She thought that was the neatest thing! We were sad to leave, but after 3 nights of Si Si and Papa John’s, we shared hugs and headed back to the hotel.
Will and Ed both gave their presentations, Will on the Olympics and Ed on Kung Fu movies. They were both very good and informative presentations. I forgot to tell you that Tyler and I did our presentations Saturday night. Tyler told us all about communism and Chairman Mao and I told everyone about Confucius. Now everyone is done with their presentations and I think they all went very well.
Tomorrow is the last day in Beijing and the last day with William...tear...and I’m sure that we will have a ton of fun. I’ll let you know what happens.
Peace Out
Ashley
