While planning this trip (meaning booking the flight and figuring out the distance between the airport and the hotel, cause God knows I didn't spend much time planning), I knew that I wanted to visit the main attractions, especially the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall (because anytime you visit Beijing, the Great Wall should be on your list to visit no matter how many times you've been). Throughout the whole time Amar and I was in Beijing, I've been on the lookout for one day tours that include those two attractions since they are the ones that cannot be reached via the subway or by a reliable transportation since it's 1-1.5 hours outside of the city. Since we visited Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City the days before, I didn't want a tour that included those in a day as well. (So much research put into this.) My mom and I literally sat down (across the world from each other and she's still my most trusty advisor (TripAdvisor is a close second) and researched different tour companies in China. Like I mentioned earlier, researching anything in China is an extremely complicated task since the translations are always off or it's not clear, or there's hidden prices, which is why it's really important to search for reviews of the company before reaching out. I compared the one day tours offered by the hotels (both Holiday Inn and Marriott) and they were both around the RMB$600-800 range for ONE person. That would make it RMB$1200-1600 for the both of us, who got money for that. TripAdvisor had some really great ones but they were pricey as well. My mom sent me several links and we narrowed it down to one okay company called: BeijingToursGuide.com. It had many mixed reviews, which is good because it means it's a real company and won't leave you stranded in the middle of the road by the countryside (or at least none of the reviews mentioned anything of that nature).
What we were looking for was basically: Transportation to and from the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. A little narrative and history would be helpful but not necessary, thanks to the advancement of technology (soon there probably will be self-guided tours for cheap, where they hand you a phone *like the one in Toronto's Casa Loma* and learn about the attraction.) And last but not least, $$$PRICE$$$. Because God knows we broke out here in these streets. BeijingToursGuide.com seemed to be a perfect match because it met all our expectations. The itinerary is as follows:
"Hotel pickup at 7:30-8:00.The guide will call you one night before to settle the exact pickup time. Visit the spectacular Mutianyu Great Wall and the underground palace of Ming Tombs. Lunch is included. Be escorted back around 17:30. During the trip, 1-2 handcraft factories tours will be arranged for free and each for 30 minutes." -Copied directly from their website.
For a whopping USD$30/RMB$200 per person, we were instantly sold. It was also the two places I REALLY wanted to visit during this trip. I called them to reserve our spots for the 31st, which was tomorrow (then) and they were happy to comply, which was nice since it was so last minute. At 9PM that night, our tour guide, Mark called the hotel (since my phone doesn't work in the mainland) to confirm the reservation and that he will be picking us up at 7:30AM in the lobby.
Fast forward to tomorrow (the 31st, NYE), we met Mark as well as another couple in the lobby and got into their mini bus. We (our hotel) apparently was the last stop before heading to out of the city and our first stop was the Ming Tombs!
The first time I went to China, we visited all the tombs that were open for tourists but that was in like 2005. This time, we only visited the Dingling Tomb which is an Underground Palace. The Underground Palace houses the Emperor Zhu Yijun and his two empresses from the Ming Dynasty. Usually, the tombs only house the emperor and his favorite empress but this dude couldn't choose so they both got to live in an Underground Palace after they died. It was interesting because this particular Emperor occupied the throne for 48 years, which is the longest among all the emperors in the Ming Dynasty. The tour guide mentioned that Emperors don't live very long, most of them die before the age of 30/40. The Underground Palace was discovered in the late 1950's and it's the only underground tomb out of the 13 Imperial Tombs of the Ming Dynasty.
We were dropped off at the entrance before the parking lot of the Underground Palace and instructed to head to the marble stone while our tour guide buy our tickets at the ticket booth.
Once we got closer, it was a Bixi, which is a figure from the Chinese mythology. A turtle with a neck with the head of a dragon with a stone sculpture stele to commemorate the Emperor. It is also worth mentioning that allowing this tortoise-based stele at their funeral sight means highest rank of nobility. Touching both the head and the bottom of the Dragon Turtle promotes positive feng shui, symbolizing courage, determination, fertility, longevity, power, and success. So of course, Amar and I rubbed our hands all over the Dragon Turtle!
Of course..
There were different gates to go through before actually getting into the Underground Palace and that is because it is the gateway or symbolization of exiting the real world and going into "heaven" or the not so real world with the dead.
This might just be the ticket office though. But there are different gates!
We got there pretty early, around 8:30/9AM so there were hardly anyone around so I was able to snap a photo of Amar in the ancient solider cut-out, which apparently would cost RMB$5 per photo if the sales people were there.
The trees stretching to get some sun.
Our tour group! We met some wonderful people during this trip from all over the world like Germany, Jamaica, and France. So very nice!
If I got it correctly, the reason behind this hole/tunnel to nowhere is because people back in the 1950's knew there was an underground palace somewhere around this area and so they built this "entrance" where people can enter. But the thing is.. this tunnel was too far off from where the underground palace is. Failure. This lock-picker? was eventually the one who found the Underground Palace but his whole purpose was trying to sell the things he find there. He was eventually jailed and the funny thing was that he was a government worker! Strange.
Here we go! There are five vaulted halls, the front, middle, rear, left, and right halls. Each were made of sculptured jade. Fancy fancy. The Underground Palace apparently unearthed a total of over 3,000 pieces of cultural relics, including four national treasures such as the gold imperial crown, etc of the Ming Dynasty.
This was the Emperor's tomb. People put money down because they don't want the ghost of the Emperor to follow them home.
Once we stepped outside of the Underground Palace, this was the pretty view! The imperial tombs were placed in this area of Beijing by the Ming Dynasty emperors because it is in between the two mountains for feng shui reasons as its enclosed by the mountains in a pristine, quiet valley full of dark earth, transquil water, and other feng shui necessities.
It was sunny but so cold and dry!
xoxoxoxo
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