The Great Wall & Ming Tombs

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" - Mao

On Saturday, I went to the Great Wall with Lili, Hailei, Jing, Ann and Adam. We took a minibus from the office that drove us all the way to Badaling, about 70km from Beijing. This is the most high-profile and most-photographed part of the wall and rises at 1000m above sea level. On the way there, Lili gave us some background history about Beijing and the Great Wall. She used to be a tourist guide when she was a student and didn't lose too much of her knowledge. It was very impressive! Once we got there - it was absolutely freezing by the way - we bought our tickets and jumped in a little wagon on rails that took us up the starting point of the great climb.

The entrance at Badaling

Saving our energy for later...

Hailei, Ann, OC, Adam (+Jing taking the picture)
"We made it!"

This is pretty steep!

The Olympics are EVERYWHERE!!!

I have to admit, this was quite tough but I'm happy I did it! However, the way down turned out to be more difficult than the way up. Very strenuous and exhausting overall! My legs ended up shaking on their own when we returned to the ground :)

Now you can enjoy a 360° view of the Great Wall...

After that, we went to visit a "Cloisonne factory". "Cloisonné", in French, describes something that has fences or walls around it. In Chinese, it's an ancient handcraft art that originated during the Yuan Dynasty but prevailed in the Ming Dynasty (around 1450) and consists of enameling vases, plates, bowls and various other pieces of decoration using metallic wires.

After a well-deserved very heavy lunch above the factory store, we headed to the Ming tombs and visited Ding Ling which is the mausoleum of the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yi Jun, who ruled for 48 years!

Map of the 13 Ming tombs

Please zoom in and pay close attention to point #3 :)

NB. If you walk through the gate on your way in,
you have to walk through the gate on your way back otherwise...

View from the top

As the palace that holds the tomb was underground and hidden,
tunnels had to be dug to find it. This is now the main access...

Me acting silly... as always!

This was quite an exhausting day but very rich in history, culture, scenery and fun!

Yuan Xiao Jie - Chinese Lantern Festival

Last Thursday (21st of February) was Yuan Xiao Jie which meant more fireworks!!! Some of them almost got the best of me...



The 15th day of the Lunar New Year marks the end of Spring Festival celebrations. Also known as Yuan Xiao, it is regarded as a day of bliss and reunion, as family members and loved ones gather under the first full moon of the Lunar calendar...

On this occasion, we went to "Quanjude" next to the office for another Beijing duck. At this very special time of the year, people usually get together with their family and light up lanterns. A most interesting tradition is the posting of riddles called 'Lantern Riddles'. Riddles are written on pieces of paper and posted on lanterns or walls. Any one solving the riddle is awarded a prize. On this day, people also eat Yuanxiao (元宵) which are sweet dumplings made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. This is actually what I had after the massage last week!

The duck was delicious as always and I had a great time. This was the best way to celebrate the end of Spring Festival and the "better-late-than-never-cease-fire"! But as Chinese people say "Chinese New Year would not be Chinese New Year without fireworks"!

Little trip to Haidian South

So yesterday, I finally got my Lily "fixed" if I may say so... At least I got a brand new set of strings (Martin bronze light .012) but it turns out the problem is much more serious than I thought. Some high pitch frets are now higher than others and prevent the strings from vibrating... I'll need to look into that later, probably when I go home!

Today, I went to see the China Millenium Monument and visited the Beijing World Art Museum... not because I wanted to but rather because the ticket price included access to the museum as well. The current exhibition is about "The Great Civilizations" and displays great statues, paintings, jewellery and accessories from Egypt, Rome, Mexico, Greece, India, Mesopotamia and it even had English captions :)

China Millenium Monument

Impressive view from the top of the monument

Me by me!

Statue of Confucius

Some details about the mechanism behind the sculpture...

Beijing has its own Spire!!!

The Revolving Sundial
---
Some other views

A typical Chinese building mixing styles

Olympics craze!
I'm sure you've seen these little animals before, haven't you? These are the official mascots of the 2008 Olympic games. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. When you put their names together, it gives you
"Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni" which means "Beijing welcomes you"!

The Great Beijing West Railway Station

Me... crazy... why?

It's Friday and I'm finally back at work! Not that I'm such a workaholic but the poor Internet connexion at the hotel was starting to drive me nuts!

Tonight, Carolyn took me to her favorite place... Long Island Massage & Spa! As I told her, this must her new church judging by the way she preaches about it... all the time! I have to admit, the place is really really nice. The decoration, the atmosphere, the staff, the service, etc etc... It's heaven! The massage was very nice, sometimes a bit too strong, but enjoyable overall... I definitely have to learn how to say "Ouch, you're hurting me... this is much too strong... please stay away from my calves... this feels really painful..." :) Yeah, I'd say massages are not really my thing but I'll give it another shot. We even got a free drink and some sweet dumplings (made of glutinous rice with black sesame seeds) after our 1-hour treatment! Who could say no to that?

But when I arrived home, I got some bad news... my Lily is sick! I think she's got a cold but I'm not too sure about that so I'd better take her down tomorrow for a check-up! This will probably result in me saying something like "Nǐ hǎo, wǒ yǒu yīge wèn tí. Qǐng nǐ kě yǐ huàn wǒ de... then pointing at the strings... mǎ?" which in my dreams could mean "Hello Sir, how are you today? Listen, I've encountered a problem with my guitar and I'd like you to have a quick look at it in order to tell me whether or not it can fixed and if I need new guitar strings. In this case, would you please do me the favour of replacing them by a brand new set?" but in a very doubtful Chinese actually means "Hello, I have a problem. Could you please change my... guitar strings?". Well, I guess the outcome will be the same... These strings need to come off!

Now, in order to show you how serious her illness is and how crispy and crunchy she sounds, this is me trying to massacre "Blackbird" on my poor sick Lily... Watch out for the ear damage cause it's irreversible :)

And finally, tomorrow is Nada's birthday! She'll probably kill me for that but I couldn't miss this opportunity to say "Eh oh, fais pas ta soyeuse"!!!

That's all folks! Have a good weekend!!!

Nemo made it to Beijing

This week, I hung out with Joe before he left for London on Friday. On Thursday night, we went to have dinner with a few of his friends at Rumi, a Middle-Eastern restaurant where we had some hummus and kebabs. Nothing really special about the food but the decor was nice.

After that, we went to Wain Wain, a Japanese bar with an incredible view of the city by night (see picture below). It also has karaoke rooms but we were not in the mood for it. This place is however pretty impossible to stumble upon if you don't know it... like most bars in Beijing! I don't why things ended up the way they are but bars are often located on random floors of business buildings, at the corner of hutongs or on the top floor of hotels like Q Bar.

On Saturday night, Yiting invited me to dinner at her place, with her parents. Her mom cooked and it was delicious! I had some cooked leaves from a plant that comes from Yiting's hometown in the North West of China and that is very similar to endives. They apparently serve it with honey though. We also had some tofu and black mushrooms and some marinated pork (I presume) similar to "ti kro"... Sorry grandma, I don't know how to spell that correctly... I'm better at eating it :) All this was served with steamed rice and soup with lettuce and fish balls to accompany it. Nothing's better than a homemade meal!

This weekend I went to Bejing Haiyangguan and Dongwuyuan which are respectively the aquarium and the zoo.

The aquarium is fantastic! I mean only if you like sushi, sashimi... More seriously, it has an incredible variety of fish species and some of them are enormous. What exactly do they feed these guys? Proteins? It wouldn't surprise me at all! As most of the tanks don't display English captions, I don't really know what I've seen but here's a quick selection of my favourites...

THE BIG ONES

THE UGLY ONES

ABOVE: Famous moray eels... quite disgusting!
BELOW: Definitely not his best profile!

THE GOOD LOOKING ONESABOVE: Nemo 1, Nemo 2, Nemo 3, Nemo 4, etc...

They also have some good shark tanks with one in particular that makes you feel like you're inside... I shot a video that you'll find below!

JAWS 2008

But the Chinese dolphins were not left out and put on a great show, Chinese-style! Have a look...

As for the zoo, I'd like to quote the above-linked article because I think that'll sum it all up..."Beijing Zoo (Beijing Dongwuyuan) lies to the south, and despite improvements to some areas -- notably the Panda House -- the zoo is more likely to traumatize your child than provide entertainment.". What can I add to that? Indeed! As pictures are much stronger than words, here they are...

Do I look happy? Why are you taking my picture then?

I want to go out!!!

I may be the Valentine's monkey (my head is in the shape of a heart)
but I ain't got no love for you unless you help me get out of here...

I spared you the poor elephants and other rhinos, foxes, wolves, pumas, mini monkeys and giant pandas. Trust me, none of these dudes did seem to be having a good time! This was really sad!

When I left the zoo, I passed by the place below. I didn't know what it was at the time, I still don't but I will find out... soon!

And finally, I shot a video of this crazy guy on the other day. Don't ask me what he's doing or saying, I don't know much more than you do :)



Last note: I don't have chicken pox! Yeeha!!! To make a long story short, I thought I had finally caught it cause I have all the symptoms but after visiting 2 hospitals (yes, you've heard me) it turns out it's not. I think I've never been so happy to have allergies... although I don't know what caused it but that's another issue that can be solved tomorrow :)

Last last note: When exactly are people supposed to stop playing with Fireworks in Beijing? I guess the answer is whenever they run out of stock! Damn it! It sounds like war... all these bombings and all the time! It's a never-ending New Year!