Tuesday morning, after another
delightful buffet breakfast at the Radisson, we boarded our bus for a day
of sightseeing in the outskirts of Beijing.
Our first stop for the day was not mentioned on
the schedule we had been given but to us was one of the highlights of the
trip. Michael, through his years of experience had learned that the
morning crowds at our two main stops for the day were really bad. So,
he made arrangements for us to visit a Cloisonné Factory (or Studio?) as
our first stop.
The art of Cloisonné is a most complicated
process requiring hour of tedious detail work to eventually produce one of
the most beautiful of all art forms. This factory, as do other
manufacturers of high quality Cloisonné starts with an object such as a
figurine, bowl or vase of plain copper. To this item a design is
applied using tiny pieces of metal which are applied with an adhesive into
the desired design using small tweezers and in some cases magnifying
glasses. Then using powdered colors these designs are colored and then the
object is fired in an oven. To achieve the degree of quality desired, this
color application and firing may occur up to 6 times to a single piece.
The results of this process produces a piece of
art as beautiful as, yet far different than fired ceramics and it is
unbreakable.
After watching the artists work, we were led
into a showroom where we had the opportunity of buying various Cloisonné
items ranging in price from $4 or $5 US for small figures up to over
$50,000 US for huge 5 or 6 ft. tall Vases. We bought several of the smaller
items and enjoyed looking at the Vases.
From the Cloisonné plant we headed for our
first major stop of the day, The Ming Tombs.
Our first "Ming Tombs" stop was at
the "Sacred Way" which is a commemorative walkway, about a mile
in length. The Sacred way is flanked on both sides by life size statues all
cut from a single piece of stone in 1435. The first group of statues we
came to were of animals such as lions, elephants, camels, horses, kirins
and xiezhis. We then passed statues of military, civil and eunuch
officials.
Some of us chose to ride the optional trolleys
while others walked the entire length of the Sacred Way.
From here we rode several miles to the entrance
of the Ming Tombs complex called "The Changling". As we were a
bit limited in time, we only visited the entrance, the gardens and the
Ling'en (Prominent Favor) Hall.
Ling'en Hall was a classic building from the
outside and on the inside were many works of art and artifacts which were
both beautiful and educational.
Looking at the overview map of the area, it
appears that if one had all day it would be possible to walk what looked
like a couple of miles uphill to the actual Dingling Tomb and the
Underground Palace.
From the Ming Tombs we headed further out from
Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China, which, we had all been looking
forward to.
Along the way, we stopped at a shopping center
where at a special restaurant we, along with it seemed, all of the tourists
in China had lunch together. The place was huge.
I had seen pictures of the Great Wall of China
but never realized that all 3500 miles plus were constructed in and mostly
on top of mountains. Our drive took us through the countryside and
then we began to climb through the foothills and eventually we were in the
mountains on a very good modern divided highway.
Our first look at the wall was from the windows
of our bus, where, in the distance we could see the wall running along the
tops of the mountains.
We were taken to the Badaling section of the
Wall which is one of the best preserved sections and which has been
developed with a welcome area, shops, restaurants and other tourist
enhancements.
The Great Wall holds great importance to the
people of China as it is a crystallization of the wisdom on the part of the
working people in the old times and also is a symbol of Chinese ancient
civilization.
Once inside the complex and out of the bus, we
all separated and climbed as much of the Wall as we were able or wished
to. Some spent time just staring at the wall and enjoying the
thoughts of what the ancient Chinese people went through to build this
marvelous work of construction.
By the time we all got back together and caught
up with our bus it was time to head back into Beijing, where, for the first
time we would be on our own for dinner and any other activity we might
engage in for the balance of the evening.