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Monday, August 17, 1998
This morning we are off to the Great Wall in our comfortable, i.e.
air-conditioned, bus. We stop briefly at a fresh water pearl factory
en-route. Beijing sits
in a great plain, which looked mostly agricultural from the airplane when
we were arriving yesterday, but about
thirty miles to the north we are quickly into steep, forested hills,
across which the Great Wall winds.
We visit the wall at Badaling, a popular spot, i.e. lots and
lots of people. The Wall is very steep in places, and it is very hot
visit.
We have an excellent (Chinese food) lunch in the back of a Friendship store
and cloisonné factory - they seem determined to give us as many
opportunities to shop as possible. After lunch we visit the Sacred Way,
and the Ming Tombs: In this area there are the burial mounds of the tombs
of thirteen Ming Emperors. It is more peaceful here than at the Wall - very
lush countryside and gardens; an enormous buzz of crickets/cicadas.
Due to the rush hour traffic, and the scheduled time of our dinner, we
are talked into a visit to a Chinese Traditional Medicine clinic near
the tombs, but this turns out to be quite disappointing; a very cursory
description of Chinese Traditional Medicine, a silly demonstration of
Qi Gong, and them some 'doctors' come in, read our pulses, and prescribe
very expensive (more that $100 per month) traditional medicines. The
new Chinese entreprenurial effort gone a bit awry.
After a long drive back into Beijing, we have quite a nice Beijing Duck
dinner, and then back to the hotel, very tired after a long, full day.
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