Jet lag wasn’t too much of an issue for me, I woke up for an hour around 4 AM then managed to get back to sleep again. Lyn managed to sleep right through. China is 12 hours ahead of Canada and despite its size, it only has one time zone.
We discovered the first advantage of the private tour, we get to choose the time the guide picks us up at the hotel, not the other way around! Today’s tour was to the Great Wall, with a stop at a jade factory on the way there ans a cloisonne factory on the return. We hit the busy Beijing streets and proceeded at a crawl for the first 30 minutes or so.
The Colonel Welcomes Us to Beijing!
About 20 years ago most people in Beijing traveled by bike or motor scooter and there was one ring road around the city. Now most travel by car and there are 6 ring roads around the city. The use of car horns is prolific. Although I am not fluent in Chinese car-horning, there appears to be 3 main messages, 1. you are where I want to be……. move, 2.I am going to pass you don’t do anything stupid and 3. you just did something stupid. I haven’t yet manage to work out how many cars should fit in 1 lane, logic dictates 1 is the answer, reality suggest between 1.75 and 2.25! The jury is still out on the legality / wisdom of using the bike / transit lane as a means to pass on the inside. Whatever way the rules are (mis)interpreted, it may be chaotic but there are no signs of road rage.
First stop was a jade factory where we were hoping to see jade being carved, unfortunately all we saw was a showroom; finished up buying a happiness ball, which starts from a solid block of jade from which 3 balls are carved within each other. Quite intriguing.
A Fat and Happy Buddha carved from Jade
Next stop the Great Wall, this took about an hour to get to from the Jade factory, and as we got out of the car this was the first thing we saw!
A Pizza Restaurant
The Wall stretches approximately 6200 kms. Six parts of the wall have been opened to tourists. This section north of Beijing dates back to the 1400’s. Picture time
The wall itself is an amazing construction, if only they could have built it level, there were some VERY steep up / down sections.
After the Wall we headed out to a Cloisonne factory. I’d never heard of this, but Lyn had and it was one of her requests when we put the trip together, The process involves using a base of copper which is hand formed into shape e.g. a vase. Next copper wire is applied to create the pattern, often the copper wire is formed into rings only about 2 – 3mm across. Once the wires are attached to the vase, painting and firing takes place to create an enamel finish. This painting / firing takes place about 8 times to get a level finish. The whole vase is then polished to a glass like finish.
A similar technique can be used for pictures, in this case the copper wire is plated with 24 ct gold.
Once back at the hotel we relaxed a little (and wrote this). Now it is time to head out and try a restaurant on our own!
