The Ming Tombs are the burial site of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty. I learned that as the emperor title got passed down to younger generations within the Ming Dynasty, the burial site for each emperor got smaller in size. This was seen as respectful to the emperor prior to the current one…I mean, It makes sense; when I pass away I am going to make sure to tell my family that my tombstone must be smaller than my dad’s...
We ended up visiting the burial ground for the 3rd emperor in the Ming Dynasty—Zhu Di (pronounced Judy)—and he has a pretty cool story. When it was time for the first emperor to give up his title, he had to choose which one of his 25 sons to give his throne to. It was customary that you would give your responsibilities to the first born son, but sadly the emperor’s first born son had already died. So, the emperor handed his throne to his first born son’s first born son. The other 24 sons of the emperor got passed for their nephew! Burned!
While the nephew was emperor, good ole’ Zhu Di was real ticked off that he didn’t get the throne. Zhu Di was basically the baller of the Ming Dynasty, and kicked everyone’s butts with his huge, loyal army. So when Zhu Di told his army he wanted to overthrow the nephew, they were game. Zhu Di ran train on the nephew, and was able to take over the throne. And that’s why you see him made into a statue at the burial site.
(Statue of Zhu Di)
Below, in the courtyard of the burial site, is a gateway that separates the “yin” from the “yang”, the dead from the alive. It was thought that when you passed through the gateway, you would be entering into another realm where you would be in the land of the dead, yin; but as you passed back through, going back to yang, you would be back in the normal realm of life. Needless to say, I was freaking out as I walked through the gate—I keep pinching myself to make sure that I am still in my body.
(Gateway from Yin to Yang)
(Ming Tomb Peach stand?)
After seeing the burial site and passing up on some Ming Tomb Peaches (although they actually looked pretty good), we made our way to the second stop: the Jade factory. We got a brief tour of the facility and had an introduction on the significance of Jade, its properties, and how to determine the high quality Jade from the low quality. There were a lot of cool pieces that we saw, but one of my favorites was this one of the horse. I found out, there at the Jade factory, that I was born in the Chinese year of the Horse. For those unfamiliar with the “Year of the ____”, it can be thought of similarly to a zodiac sign. There are 12 different animals that are cycled through every 12 years, each with a year being dedicated to them. For instance, in 2011 it is the Year of the Rabbit. But back in 1990, the year I was born, it was the Year of the Horse. It is said that if you are born in the year of the horse you are going to be a successful individual in life. I also learned that a lot of families, when deciding to have kids, will wait until a “good year” comes by, and one of the best years to have a child is the year of the pig. The pig is seen as an animal who is fun, doesn’t have to work, and is relaxed; and in previous years of the pig, there have been miniature baby-booms just so families can hope their child will attain these qualities.
(Jade Horses)
After the Jade factory came the big moment, or should I say the “great” moment. We went to the Wall and it was busy as ever. Walking up the “hero slope”, an extremely angled and slick part of the wall, was difficult because you would run into so many people—but it was very rewarding getting to the top of the tower. The Great Wall is also been known as the Wall of Death, because many people died in the process of making the wall. It took 10 years and over 1 million people working on the wall to complete it—and I can’t imagine that the workers’ union had that many rights back then. The Wall is over 700km in length and can be very steep in some places. The steps we would be climbing up or down would differ in size; we would take very miniature steps, and then very long strides up and down the wall—and it got very tiring. On the way back from the furthest point we climbed to, my quads started shaking whenever we would walk down steps. It was a good reminder that I was out of shape (doh!).
(Very crowded at the entrance)
(People lining the Wall)
I was told by a nice British man at one of our stops that there was a Great Wall Race the week before. I just couldn’t imagine having a race up and down a slick-angled path where one needs to be grasping the side-rail the whole time…but kudos to all those racers. By the time we were about to head down, me and my climbing buddy took a picture together with the mountains in the background (on his camera, mine had already run out of batter). After our picture was done, a completely random Asian dude walked up to me and motioned that he wanted to be in a picture with me. I smiled and went along with it, and his wife jumped in the picture as well. They then smiled and went on their way. My climbing buddy then told me that they thought I was a famous actor, and that’s why they wanted to get a picture with me. I felt flattered and completely judged.
The final stop of the day was at a traditional Chinese medical facility. After a long day of hiking on the wall, I thought all I wanted was to get some rest, but that changed when I heard why we were going to the medical facility: we all were going to get a free foot massages! While we were soaking our nasty, sweaty feet (from the Great Wall) in a warm bowl of herbal water, we were getting lectured by a student that she could tell if we had illnesses from just looking at the palms of our hands. She also told us that by massaging different points on our feet and hands that she could improve productivity of different organs that the points corresponded to. Nuts. Soon enough, a 20 year old Tibetan man came into the room and started punching, kneading, and doing crazy stuff to my feet and calves. It was AWESOME!
I ended getting back to the hotel 12 hours after I had left, and I now feel exhausted…but overall, it was a Great day.
We hiked from the tower at the very top-right side corner of this picture to where the photo was taken.
-Alex
I feel like I'm there with you, Al! Don't discount Eastern medicine. They've been healing people longer and with fewer side effects with acupressure, acupuncture, and herbal remedies longer than Western medicine has been in existence - and naturally without pushing chemicals into the body. I was born in the year of the horse, too, even though you'd think it was in the year of the pig...
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