China: Ming Dynasty Tombs & The Great Wall

I can't believe that I am just now getting around to blogging about our amazing trip to China. This vacation took place at the end of April and the first week of May. 

We flew Justin's sister, Chanda, down from Utah to stay with our kiddos for the 10 days that we were gone, and we will forever be grateful for her taking such good care of and loving our our children while we were gone.  We felt really bad that the stomach flu made it's way in our home and hit all 3 children, and Chanda, pretty hard a few days after we left. Sorry Chanda!!  

We flew out of LA and made the 15-ish hour flight over to Beijing. That was one long flight!

On one of our walks around the plane, we caught Mom and Dad Smith catches a snooze.

 I think what I was most excited about for the plane ride was to read books for as long as I wanted without any interruptions. Seriously, I was stoked!

I was also pretty excited to sit by my hubby and talk with him uninterrupted too :)

 That was one bright flash on that dark airplane!

We woke up nice and early the next morning and headed off to the Ming Dynasty Tombs on the outskirts of Beijing. 

I actually can't remember if this cool engraving was from the Tombs or the Great Wall. I don't know what all those engravings mean, but I thought it was pretty neat. Justin's parents actually have something similar to this, but carved out of wood, in their home. 

Just a little historical background: One of the The Ming Dynasty's (1360's-1640's) emperors, the Yongle Emperor, selected his burial site and erected his own mausoleum which turned into this beautiful piece of land where 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors, and wives, and concubines are buried. This area was selected based on it's Feng Shui principles- tranquil waters, quiet valley, etc.  

As of now, there are only 3 tombs open to the public and the Ding Ling one is the one we explored. It is the only one whose underground palace has been excavated. 

This is part of the entry way into the tomb and down below is one of the biggest stone archways in China. 

 Most all the doorways in China (the old ones) have a large beam that runs in front of the opening. It is a big no-no to step on this beam. You are suppose to step over it as to keep the bad energy (that somehow pools in front of doorways) out of the house. It's a feng shui thing I think. All the Chinese were yelling out something as they crossed it but I don't remember what it was. I'll ask Justin and post it on here later. 

We had Mom and Dad Smith, G&G Chapman, and Alan (work partner)& Debbie Merrill on the trip with us and it was SO fun having them there. G&G Chapman were troopers!! Can you believe they are 83?!

 Inside the underground palace area. I think this place was originally suppose to trick robbers into thinking that this was where the emperor and all his trinkets were buried but now it is just a place where people obviously like to throw their money. I don't remember why. In the U.S., we throw coins... in China, they throw dollar bills, or more! I actually saw a cute 4 or 5 year old girl reach in and grab a handful of money while her parents weren't looking. I'm sure that threw off some sort of feng shui :)

Here is where the Wanli Emperor, his wife, and most prized concubine were buried. The emperors were buried with all their silk, jade, and gold artifacts. Unfortunately after the Ding Ling excavation, The People's Republic of China came in and burned/destroyed everything that was preserved. 

One thing that is very interesting about China is that for a place so old and so full of history, they have hardly any artifacts to show it. Our guide told us that almost everything of worth was taken out of China, when dynasties fell and such,  and was sold in other parts of the world. Kinda sad. 

This was the throne of the emperor and his wife's was on the other end of the room. I love the Ming Dynasty porcelain. It's always been my favorite.

 The Great Wall! 

After the Ming Tombs, we drove maybe an hour more and came to this really cool Great Wall spot. I think it was called Badaling. There are many different spots to see the Great Wall but they say this one is the best in Beijing. 

Walking up to the wall, there was this wind tunnel that you had to walk through and I seriously thought the wind was going to pick me up and move me! The wind was SO strong!

You can get quite a work out exploring the Wall. Don't let these pictures fool you, it was steep!!

 We fully embraced the peace sign or V for victory while we were here. 

 I thought this was such a cool picture with Justin in it. Anyone want to edit out the people for me? :)

It blows my mind that not only does the wall span 5,500 miles but that the ancient Chinese used to pull the parts for labor up this thing!

 The Great Wall was also the start of our "celebrity" status. I told Justin that I could live in China with all the positive attention that you get being tall and blonde! :) What made the attention even more awesome was that Justin got something stuck in his contact and it was killing him. His poor eye was sooo bloodshot red. So while he spent a good 30 minutes trying to flush out whatever that was in his eye, I watched as 5,000 people took pictures of him doing it. It was quite entertaining. 

You could see the wall go on for forever!

The Great Wall is definitely impressive. It didn't prove to be very efficient for the ancient Chinese but at least they are making good money off tourism for it :)