Highlights of China

Terracotta Warriors and Horses and Museum

Attraction | "The Beautiful Scary Warriors"

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The Terracotta Warriors. XianWhen I was fourteen I remember watching with mouth agog at the news reports of the discovery of the terracotta warriors in Xian, China. They were accidentally discovered by a group of farmers who were drilling a well for water. They came across some unusual pieces of pottery. The authorities heard about it and a delegation was sent to examine the pieces of pottery. It was quickly identified as pottery from around the time of the first Emperor and this was quickly relayed to more senior officials. Shortly followed a massive influx of archaeologists who started to dig and found the terracotta warriors who were supposed to be the guards of the tomb of the Fi...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 13, 2009

Terracotta Warriors and Horses and Museum
Lintong District, Shaanxi Province
Xian, Shaanxi
029 391 1961

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Summer Palace

Attraction | "A Wonderful Peaceful Man Made Place"

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The summer palace is perhaps one of my favourite places we visited in Beijing. It is approximately ten miles from the centre of Beijing.You can get there by bus or taxi the fares are very cheap. A lot of taxi drivers can not speak English so when you go out make sure the hotel gives you a card with the name of the hotel on it so you can show it to the driver.The summer palace is massive and was built for the Royal family to escape from the city for rest and relaxation. There used to be great processions when they moved there during the very hot summer months away from the heat and noise of the city.The palace is surrounded by mountains and lakes and is so picturesque and peacef...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 13, 2009

Summer Palace
West Of The Old Summer Palace
Beijing, China 100091
+86 (10) 6288 1144

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Ming Tombs

Attraction | "The Burial Place of China's Emperors"

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The Ming tombs.The Ming tombs are about 30 miles to the North of Beijing where tombs of the 13 of the 16 Ming Emperors from the Ming Dynasty are built. Only 11 emperors are actually buried here as two of them were buried elsewhere. One was buried in Nanjing the former capital of China.The other Emperor Jingtai was denied an imperial burial by his brother and was instead buried as a prince towards the east of Beijing. Tiansun was the original Emperor but was kidnapped and held by the Mongols during a war. Eventually the government installed Jingtai his brother to the throne. After 8 years the Mongols released Tiansun but Jingtai carried on as the Emperor so when he died and Tian...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 13, 2009

Ming Tombs
Shi San Ling Te Qu
Beijing, China 102213
+86 (0)10 60761423

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Great Wall at Ba Da Ling

Attraction | "A Magnificant man Made Structure"

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The Great Wall of China.The Great Wall of China is one of the most wonderful sights you are likely to see on your trip to china. It is a magnificent structure that apparently can be seen from outer space although there is some debate whether this is true. It stretches for over 5000 miles across the whole of china from the desserts in the West right to the sea in the East over mountains. Building of the great wall started approximately 476 years BC and was finally completed during the Ming Dynasty in about 1644.The wall was originally built to try and stop the Northern nomadic tribes from invading China and they just kept building and building the wall. The wall was built by loc...Read More

The Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall of China is one of the most wonderful sights you are likely to see on your trip to china. It is a magnificent structure that apparently can be seen from outer space although there is some debate whether this is true. It stretches for over 5000 miles across the whole of china from the desserts in the West right to the sea in the East over mountains. Building of the great wall started approximately 476 years BC and was finally completed during the Ming Dynasty in about 1644.

The wall was originally built to try and stop the Northern nomadic tribes from invading China and they just kept building and building the wall. The wall was built by local people soldiers and criminals. Many lost their lives during the construction of the wall but there has never been an accurate account of exactly how many died.
There are a variety of landscapes the wall is built on including the mountainous region about 40-50 miles north of Beijing. It’s absolutely amazing to think that these people moved all these stones rocks and boulders to make this great wall on the top of the mountains. Many parts of the wall are unsafe and in a state of disrepair due to wear and tear caused by weather and also local people stealing the stones to build their own houses.

The part of the wall we visited is one of the most visited parts of the Great Wall at Badaling which is only about 45 miles from Beijing. Here the wall has been repaired and you are able to walk up either side. There is a small charge of about 45 Yuan which is just under a pound. We were advised once we got to the wall to turn right because that is the easiest route. Mind you it seemed like the whole of China was there as well and all were told to take the right hand side. There were hundreds of school kids all looking at those funny white westerners wondering where we came from some brave little chaps said Hello but that was about all they could muster,
There were groups of men and women whether they were out on days out from their works I don’t know then there were tourists from all over the world Italians, French, German, Japanese, Americans, Australians and New Zealand.

The wall is quite wide and apparently it had to be wide enough so that rows of horses five abreast could walk along the wall where ever they were needed fast. As the wall is on the top of the mountains you can imagine that the steps were of differing heights some short steps some long some tall some short. It really is quite wearing on the legs. I laughed and asked is this really the easiest route? Along the wall are small look out posts where soldiers would be stationed looking out towards the north in case of invasion. The system they used to alert invasions were smoke signals a small puff of smoke used to go up and one bang on the drum to indicate 100 invaders, 2 bangs of the drum which meant there were about 500 invaders and 3 bangs would mean there were about a thousand. This was relayed along the wall between watch towers so that the army could be mobilised as quickly as possible. They were particularly worried about invasion by the Mongols who were particularly fierce warriors.

Reaching the peak of the first watch tower we looked down into the valley below. The watchtower gave commanding views for miles around. Ahead we could see another watch tower they are obvious for as far as the eye can see. We made it to the fourth watch tower before having to return to the meeting point. The wall just goes on and on and on higher and higher into the mountains and down into the valleys as far as the eye can see. It really is a remarkable sight.

Thinking that it would be a doddle going down let me stress right here and now it certainly isn’t. It really plays on your calves and you certainly know you have walked the Great Wall. On our way down it started to rain and this made the path very slippery and we saw several people take a tumble so be aware of this. There were paintings for sale near to the entrance of the wall which were very cheap and at one of the look out posts there were some stalls set up to sell trinkets and a camel you could pose with and have your picture taken with the views of the great wall in the background. At the bottom of the wall there are some cannon guns that had been used on the wall in the past from the 1800’s and apparently they still worked but were just there for show.

Reaching the meeting point down below in the square we then walked to the coach park we passed lots of little shops selling souvenirs and nick naks from small items to massive jade sculptures. All shops expect you to haggle over the prices. There are restaurants and cafés here too selling all kinds of foods.

If you are not feeling up to walking there is a cable car ride that you can take to the summit of the Great Wall at Badaling and there is also some kind of slide adventure thing you can take down a little bit like a toboggan run which looked fun. It is very commercialised here and by driving a few more miles further you can reach parts of the wall and it is practically deserted no other tourists or sight seers for miles around. Sadly in places the wall is but a ruin and can be very dangerous to walk on great care needs to be taken when walking on the wall.

If you ever go to China the great wall is a definite attraction to see and experience.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 13, 2009

Great Wall at Ba Da Ling
Yan Qing County
Beijing, China
+86 (0)10 6912 1235

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Forbidden City

Attraction | "Once Forbidden Now a Must Visit"

Quote:

This is a city built for the Chinese Emperor who was cocooned in the vast city within a city. Building started on the palace in 1406 and it took 16 years to build. Over one million workers were involved in the building of it and precious woods and marble were used from all corners of China. In total it housed 24 Emperors 14 from the Ming Dynasty and 10 from the Qing Dynasty.As the most of the palace is made primarily of rare woods it has during its history experienced many fires. There are massive bronze cauldrons filled with water in case of fire throughout the palace. The fires were started both accidently and on purpose. There was an abundance of use of lanterns which sometimes caused a...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 12, 2009

Forbidden City
North Of Tiananmen Square Dong Cheng District
Beijing, China 100009
+86 (0)10 6512 2255

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China Journals

Highlights of China

Terracotta Warriors and Horses and Museum

Summer Palace

Ming Tombs

Great Wall at Ba Da Ling

Forbidden City

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