The Great Wall and the Ming Tombs

Hi everyone, I am Alwyn from High Flyers, 翱翔 . Today I will be blogging about our trip to the Great Wall and the Ming tombs on the 11 of November. Personally, I have been to the Great Wall 3 years ago, when I came to Beijing then, but that was the badaling (八达岭 ) Great Wall. This time however, we will be going to the mu tian yu (慕田峪) Great Wall, which is not commonly visited by tourists, and is a bit more challenging.

After a 2 hour journey on the coach, we reached our destination. There were many shops at the foot of the path leading to the Great Wall, selling souvenirs. We were even lucky enough to see a camel!

The specialty about this part of the Great Wall is that unlike other parts like the badaling Great Wall, there is an amount of route to travel by foot before we can get onto the Great Wall. When we made it to the Great Wall, the sight was simply extravagant. We could see the other parts of the Great Wall put onto mountains stretching forward beyond our sight. It seemed like those footages that are constantly shown on televisions documentaries, very wonderful. The few of us then decided to go all the way to the end of the ‘opened’ area of the Great Wall. We had small picnics every 1 or 2 towers (烽火台), and we eventually reached the end of the area opened to tourists. However, being adventurous boys, we went beyond the sign, and saw for ourselves the real Great Wall. There were weeds and wild vegetation on the Great Wall itself, and we even saw for ourselves a collapsed and ruined tower. This is the real Great Wall, not the renovated and made for tourists’ one, and it was really a good feeling being able to experience this.

After we spent enough time on the Great Wall, we got to the cable car and toboggan station. Some of us decided to experience the toboggan, which is like a slide down from the Great Wall, while others chose the cable car. I chose the toboggan, and it was truly an enjoyable and unforgettable experience.

After lunch, we headed for one of the 13 Ming tombs, the ‘Ding Ling’. It is the tomb of the emperor Wanli, and the only tomb there excavated. The tomb looked like a palace, with red walls and grand doors. There was even carving of dragons and phoenixes on the staircases. We then got down into the underground tomb, and saw the layout of the tomb. What that interested me was how the door was locked on the inside and how the person who locked it got out alive. There was actually a beam that was put on the inside, leaning on the door and on the floor. It can only be guessed that the beam was leaning on the door when it was open, and there was a hinge on the door, thus when the door was closed carefully, the beam would be locked onto the hinge, locking the door.

After the ‘Ding Ling’, we went to another part of the Ming tombs, the spirit path. There, we saw statues of animals like elephants, lions, and after the whole stretch, we made our journey back to our dormitory.

It was a wonderful day, visiting amazing places, and it was an enlightening trip for all of us.

Bye,

Alwyn