Part of a series of posts detailing my adventures in China exactly one year ago.

Extract from my journal:
Thursday 1st March

Today we went to the Ming Tombs and Great Wall. We had a tour guide who talked about lots of stuff on the way, but I was more interested in listening to some L’Abri talks about Narcissism by Andrew Fellows. It made me appreciate Greg’s commentary more, though – he says a lot less, but it’s almost always worth listening to.

The Ming tombs were fairly interesting, but you couldn’t see the tombs themselves, and so while we were left with more admittedly very nice Ming architecture, the novelty of such buildings is beginning to wear off a little. The statues guarding the imperial road into the valley of the tombs were very cool – oversized soldiers and courtiers, plus animals both real and mythical.

Lunch was in a nasty tourist trap place where they try to sell you various tat at exorbitant prices. This package tour to the tombs and wall is probably the most touristy thing we’ve done, but we could at least comfort ourselves that we aren’t as bad as the American tourists we saw all with name-tags who ordered plates of chips for lunch! What’s the point of coming half-way round the world to eat fries?

Then we were off to the Great Wall. I knew it was commercialised, but still wasn’t quite expecting the small town’s worth of shops, hotels and restaurants clustered around the entrance. But once you walked along the wall for a bit, you could escape the sight of such things, and the hawkers selling postcards and souvenirs became fewer and farther between. And it was amazing! Spectacular mountain views, with the wall snaking across the peaks. How much work was put in, how many lives were sacrificed to create it? How many lifetimes spent manning it? I’m very glad to have seen such an amazing feature, and walked on it.

I also bought a few bits and pieces for friends and family. A Mao hat for Comrade Swithun, a local folk wind instrument for Becky as a birthday present, and some postcards. Unfortunately, I left my camera on the coach and won’t be able to get it back until we head out tomorrow morning, meaning I can’t recharge my batteries ready for visiting the Forbidden City. Hopefully they’ll last…