July 12th in China, THE GREAT WALL and the Ming tombs underground palace!

I woke early this day and made sure all my cameras were charged, and that I had all my camera cards. I was pumped to get to see the Great Wall of CHina. I fixed my hair instead of wearing my usual hat because I had plans to take many pictures and wanted to look nice, haha. So our group met in the lobby and we loaded on the buses to head to Badaling, one of the most visited parts of the Great Wall. We rode on the bus for about an hour and finally arrived. I got really excited as we approached because from the bus you could catch glimpses of the wall here and there! We got lucky too, this day turned out to be a clear beautiful day with no smog! So we could see very well and the pictures would turn out great, the only problem is that it would be so much hotter! I made sure to put on sunscreen, use the restroom and also purchase some sunglasses in the parking lot so that I was ready for my hike up the wall. The chinese guide informed us that Mao once said you are not a hero unless you conquer the wall. So we were all going to try our luck at being a hero! :D We started to walk toward the entrance that would allow us to climb up onto the wall, but we an into an obstacle. We were stopped by a guard and told to wait, little did we know at the moment that is was because the president of Mexico and his family were visiting the Great Wall on the same day! But because of security no one knew to expect him until like 10 mins before he got there. So here we all are standing on the sidewalk with like a thousand other visitors and we have to watch as about 10 cars drive past us and right up through the gate to the wall. We had to wait about 45 mins for the president to be done with his visit before we were cleared to go on the wall. While we were waiting it was hot, we were packed so tightly, and because all the chinese women carry umbrellas I dont know how many times I was poked with the edge of an umbrella! Good thing I bought the sunglasses they were more of a shield from umbrellas then from the sun for my poor eyes! haha! Finally we were allowed to start making our way through the gate up onto the wall, the only thing is the "gateway" that led to the inside part with stairs up onto the wall was barely bigger than the size of a house's front door. So we were funneling all these people through this small entrance! It was awful! Finally though our group made it through and I was able to set foot on the Great Wall of China. it was crowded but still very awesome. I shot a video on the wall and then started my trek up the wall. I stopped here and there to get several pictures of the wall, the crowd, the surroundings and also of the Beijing Olympic games sign that was up on a mountain next to the wall, sort of how the Hollywood sign is. I made it to the highest part of the wall where we were and I was able to buy a shirt on the wall that says, "I have climbed the Great Wall" and it has a cool picture of it on there. Then I was able to get my picture taken on this cliff/rock that juts out of the ground near the highest tower, it is called "Hero Rock". So I suppose my climb made me a hero. HAHA. Another thing I found really interesting was the carvings on the wall. People have carved their names (I assume their names) as well as other things into the rock on the Great Wall, I thought it looked cool however, because it is all in Chinese. I made my way down to meet the group at the check point and to load onto the buses. It was a bit of relief to get back on the bus for a bit because it WAS really hot outside but so worth it! We ate lunch at a local restaurant that served more of the Southern China style food. Which is really close to American style chinese food, so I liked this lunch quite a bit. The restaurant was also near a factory where they make the cloisonne jewelry. Which is a traditional type of jewelry and decoration used throughout China and the world. I learned all about the Cloisonne style in my art history class so it was neat to hear about its history here in China. After lunch we got back on our buses and headed toward part of the Ming tombs. There are several parts and the part we visited was the underground palace. It is a vast burial chamber and crypt like area underground. It had several huge rooms and hallways and was the burial place of the emperor Wanli. We were allowed to tour the underground palace as well as the surrounding relics. There is even a museum there with some of the relics and treasures that were discovered when this tomb was excavated. I found it extremely interesting to view all these things and to actually have seen the spot where they were found. (I am kind of an archaeology nerd). After the tombs we headed back to downtown Beijing to enjoy our dinner. We ate at a place near the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube so that was cool to see. Also the place we ate at was very cool, it was a restaurant underground and during the meal dancers and performers sang or danced traditional dances of the China minorities in full costume. It was really cool, I was able to get some video there but pictures didn't come out because of the lighting. We headed home after that and i did my usual routine of checking the internet, talking to Micah, and getting ready for bed because the next day was the last day of the touring that was set up for us by BOCOG. We were going to visit the Summer Palace and get to see a Peking Opera!