Leave Heathrow for honeymoonArrive in BeijingTour of a Jade Factory, the Ming Tombs and Great Wall of ChinaTour of Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer PalaceArrive in Hong Kong on way to SydneyArrive in SydneyLunch at Guylian, Opera House tour and walks through Botanical Gardens and The RocksVisit our friend JakobExplore SydneyTrip to Featherdale Wildlife Park and Blue Mountains National ParkWild Australia Experience tour of Taronga ZooSpent time with our friend Jakob, meal at Aria restaurant then night-time photosArrive in Cairns then travel to Palm CoveSnorkelling in the Great Barrier ReefHelicopter ride over the Great Barrier ReefArrive in Brisbane on way to Cook IslandsArrive in Auckland on way to Cook IslandsRelax on Cook Islands at the Rumours of RomanceArrive in Auckland again on way homeArrive in Los Angeles on way homeHome again!
 | rfuller |  | Richard & Jana's Honeymoon... |  | Tour of a Jade... |
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May 13 2009, 08:00 AM
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Ming Tombs & Great Wall, China
From here we went to the Sacred Way and Ming Tombs. The site for the tombs were chosen by using the ancient Chinese Feng Shui principles and the Sacred Way is a massively long and straight road that leads to these. Stanley first took us to the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion erected during the Qing dynasty. Inside this pavilion a massive stele is found on the back of a giant tortoise (one of the 9 children of the dragon). After this the road has 18 pairs of statues of various real/mythical animals and humans. For each type of animal there is a pair of statues showing it stood and another pair showing it kneeling (to allow for changing of the guard). The last 6 pairs are the humans depicting each of the classes represented in China (e.g. Generals, ministers, officials etc). It really is a peaceful place first thing in the morning.
After the sacred way we went to the Changling tomb where Zhu Di was buried. Zhu Di was the 3rd Emperor of the Ming dynasty and responsible for moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and then building the Forbidden City there. As a result of his accomplishments, he is buried in the largest of the 13 Ming tombs. The tomb is truly huge and a very impressive yet peaceful place. All the buildings have yellow roofs as this was the colour of Earth so therefore the Emperors colour - only he could have yellow roofs, clothing etc. As you look around it is very impressive how many of his possessions survived the elements/looting and also how much the Chinese still respect their Emperors - everything is very well looked after and regularly repainted.
From here we drove to Badaling for a buffet lunch and then a walk along the great wall. The buffet lunch was very nice with a large selection of food including vegetarian dishes - the black pepper noodles were deceptively spicy!
Standing over 5000 miles long, the Great Wall of China is the largest of its kind, is one of the new 7 Wonders of the world. Contrary to popular belief, it is not visible from space due to fact that it is only 7m at its widest sections. Because of its popularity with tourists, the Badaling section is regularly rebuilt and well preserved however this also means it is one of the busiest sections of the wall. We had read a lot of reviews stating that this section is full of people trying to sell you stuff however we found this was not really the case - a few people tried to see you drinks or souvenirs but they left you alone if made it clear you were not interested. Once you are on the wall, travelling north-east is certainly the easy direction however we recommend you go south-west if you want to avoid the crowds - plus you get much better views of other sections of the wall. There are very steep slopes and steps however so take good shoes! We didn't quite realise how steep some sections were until heading back - this caused Jana a few issues since she has vertigo! If you get to go on a bright sunny day like we did however, the views are absolutely breathtaking! Although you hear and read how long it is, you can't quite grasp it until you see it disappearing off in to the distance in both directions.
Stanley took us on the scenic trip back to the hotel so that we could see the Olympic village and stadiums. Once there we were shattered so just spent the evening watching AXN-Asia, drinking copious amounts and eating snack food.
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