| Most viewed - China |
95 viewsOne last view of the Great Wall of China as we flew away toward home.
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69 viewsCover page for China
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64 viewsI lucked out. What a great seat. No one in the middle seat, and a place to stretch out my legs. Wonderful.
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61 viewsThree? I have no clue what I was thinking at the time!
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40 viewsGot a little snack at McDonalds before leaving on my flight.
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29 viewsThis really is exciting. I think I was thinking, "Wow, I'm really here."
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29 viewsBehind me is the Gate of Heavenly Purity. The whole Forbidden City has over 9,999 buildings! Whew! A person could get so lost in this place!
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28 viewsTo get to the Forbidden City, we had to go past Tiananmen Square. The Square used to be the entry way to the Forbidden City.
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27 viewsNext to the Temple of Heaven is the Tiantan Park. If you come here in the morning, you can enjoy the Chinese exercising or singing their cultural songs.
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26 viewsAfter a very long flight, we finally arrived in Beijing.
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26 viewsThe Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. For almost 500 years it served as the home of emperors and their households. These are the gates to enter the city.
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25 views I walked over to get another angle, and he was still just sitting there.
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25 viewsThis is the man who lived in this house.
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25 viewsAll the roofs were beautifully decorated. The unicorn on the top was to keep evil spirits away, and guard the entrance to the Emperor's Garden.
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25 viewsBut I also turned around to take a picture of how far I had come.
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25 viewsThis is the plane I will soon be boarding.
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24 viewsThis gazebo area was so pretty. I love the Asian feeling.
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24 viewsIs this someone's supper, or is the chicken just eating from the garbage!
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24 viewsI watched the changing of the guard......but it was only one guard.
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24 viewsHis close-up shot! When I look at this picture, I think of the song, "Red and Yellow, Black and White." He definitely looked yellow!
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24 viewsWalking over to it, there were lots of people sitting around just "chillin."
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24 viewsI'll have to say that I have NEVER seen this on the front of ANY Hard Rock Cafe!
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24 viewsI don't know what he was thinking, but I liked his interesting face.
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24 viewsI DID IT!
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24 viewsHowever, before I would even think of starting back down, I took a rest for a few minutes.
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24 viewsWhen he saw I was taking photographs, he stopped and posed for me. Cute!
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24 viewsI hadn't seen a bike like this before.
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23 viewsAfter going through the process of customs and collecting the luggage, we finally arrived at the hotel.
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23 viewsOur hotel was the Sheraton Hotel Beijing.
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23 viewsThe thing you notice immediately is that the people use bicycles for everything.
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23 viewsI loved this photo. It looked like she was heading to school.
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23 viewsThis street, except for the main highways, shows pretty much what most of the areas look like. Lots of bikes, lots of walkers.
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23 viewsI'm standing in front of the Great Hall of the People. The Square is definitely a "must see" when you visit Beijing.
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23 viewsThis man was cutting across the Square to deliver his boxes somewhere.
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23 viewsI'm getting ready to take the Beijing Hutong tour. It's a fun tour that takes you through the old alleyways and traditional courtyard residences. It's a real cultural learning tour.
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23 viewsThis was one of the typical homes we saw.
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23 viewsWhen I was growing up, I heard about this place called the Forbidden City in China. It sounded so scary. That is where we are heading next.
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23 viewsStill walking! Now we are going into the inner court where the Imperial concubines lived.
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23 viewsInside of this gate, called the Gate of Great Benevolence, are five hundred ancient Chinese bronzes.
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23 viewsThis is one of the eighteen bronze burners on the terrace of the Supreme Harmony Hall. Each one represents a province in the Qing dynasty.
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23 viewsThere were a lot of little kids visiting here, too.
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23 viewsI'm sitting in what is called the "Long Corridor." It is a covered walkway that was built so the emperor's mother could enjoy a walk through the gardens and not get rained on.
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23 viewsIn the afternoon, there are so many men playing games and enjoying their musical instruments.
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23 viewsThese girls were putting some type of finish on the vases. The smell was so strong that I wondered why they didn't wear masks.
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23 viewsTHERE IT IS!
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23 viewsI saw this little girl with her family, and asked if I could have my picture taken with her.
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23 viewsI had climbed so high that you couldn't even see where I had started. I loved this picture!
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23 viewsGetting ready to leave the hotel for the airport.
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23 viewsSaying goodbye to my two guides at the airport.
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22 viewsThis was the way out to the swimming pool area.
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22 viewsAfter a much needed rest to get rid of some of the jet lag, we started out on a tour of the city. Even through the smog, you could see the McDonald's sign.
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22 viewsI am on my way to Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world.
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22 viewsThere were so many families there.
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22 viewsThis is the China National Museum. Inside you will see a large number of cultural relics illustrating the long history of China from 1,700,000 years ago to 1921 when the last emperor left the throne. The museum was built in 2003.
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22 viewsThere is a significant police presence at the Square. Police and military patrol in vans containing a squadron of forces ready for immediate action. Even with the Chinese army guards walking around everywhere, I was totally at ease.
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22 viewsYou crossed over many gates like this one.
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22 viewsThis is the exit from the Forbidden City. That tour was amazing, but boy, am I pooped. It took all day, and we only saw a part of it, but it's a must see for Beijing.
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22 viewsJust a block away from my hotel is the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe, so, of course, I have to go.
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22 viewsThis is the inside of the temple showing the altar where the emperors would pray for favorable weather.
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22 viewsI loved watching them play these games.
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22 viewsI thought they were playing checkers, but someone said it was chess.
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22 viewsTheir work was so precise and intricate.
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22 viewsI don't know what this building was used for, but I thought it looked like a freaky face!
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22 viewsWhat I am sure was an hour later, I stopped and took a picture of the top.....it felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest! I never dreamed it would be this hard.
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22 viewsI feel great! That was some adventure, and I'm proud of myself for doing it.
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22 viewsThis is one of my guides showing his funny side.
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22 viewsThis is looking out of my hotel room at the city. There are very modern parts of Beijing, but my tours took me to see how most of the people live.
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22 viewsThought this was a pretty interesting sign.
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21 viewsThis was the dining room just off of the lobby.
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21 viewsHere is where you got parts for you bicycle.
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21 viewsThis man was a street cleaner. You could see his straw broom inside the cart.
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21 viewsI had never seen pandas before. They are just so cute.
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21 viewsThere were several "barbershops" along the walkway.
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21 viewsHe has quite a job keeping the place clean. However, I never saw him move very fast! = )
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21 viewsSome more cleaners of the Square. I wonder how much they make.
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21 viewsSaw another "barbershop" on the way out.
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21 viewsWe also got to walk around and see street scenes like this. Lots of kids were playing soccer.
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21 viewsMost of the kids seemed used to seeing tourists around.
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21 viewsIt looked like they stored a lot of stuff outside in their courtyard.
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21 viewsThis was the stove in one of the houses.
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21 viewsThe Forbidden City covers 178 acres, and although it once had over 9,000 buildings, there are only 980 surviving ones. It has been the home of 24 emperors. The whole city is surrounded by high walls and a moat, which were mostly for defense.
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21 viewsNow we are at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest of all of the buildings rising 98 feet above the courtyard. It was the ceremonial center of imperial power, and it's the largest surviving wooden structure in China. In the middle is the ceremonial ramp which was part of the Imperial Way.
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21 viewsHow cute was she!
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21 viewsThese bronze bowl were seen throughout the complex. Since the buildings were made of wood, these bowls were kept full of water to help put out any fire.
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21 viewsThis is part of the Emperor's private garden. It was used exclusively by the imperial family to sip tea, play chess, meditate and generally relax.
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21 viewsNow we are heading to the Summer Palace, which is the largest imperial garden in the world. The construction was started in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong as a birthday gift to his mother. It took fifteen years to complete.
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21 viewsThe gazebo located next to the Kunming Lake.
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21 viewsSo many of the men had these hat on.
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21 viewsThe following day, our guides took us to the large Chinese stores where you could buy the nicer things. This man was printing my name on a very small seed.
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21 viewsThe next stop was a factory where we could watch the girls making pottery.
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21 viewsWe could tell we were getting closer after we went through this arch.
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21 viewsHere it is....the beginning of the climb. It was really cold out, so you didn't have to worry about a lot of tourists being around.
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21 viewsWow....I thought I was in fairly good shape, but believe you me, these stairs were hard to climb.
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21 viewsAfter a rest, I got up and started climbing again. What made it hard was some steps were low and then the next one would be high. I don't know how many times I tripped! = )
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21 viewsOh my gosh! It was so cold when I started out, and now I'm so hot from the climb. And I've got a long way to go yet.
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21 viewsWhile I was resting a bit, I took this picture of how far I still had to go. Oy vey!
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21 viewsComing down wasn't much easier. I really felt it in the knees.
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21 viewsWhen I got to the bottom, I was able to visit this beautiful building......and go to the bathroom!
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21 viewsI bought a "I Climbed the Great Wall" sweatshirt from this sweet lady.
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21 viewsWhat am I doing? Who knows! = )
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21 viewsThe guide up close and personal.
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21 viewsAll packed and ready to leave Beijing tomorrow.
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21 viewsThis is the gal that came for my luggage the next morning.
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20 viewsAs you walked down the street, you noticed that it was probably lunch time.
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20 viewsI think this bike belonged to a cleaning person, but it was hard to tell.
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20 viewsIt was easy to tell this man was hauling food products.
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20 viewsWOW...........he must have had some incredible balance!
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20 viewsAnother place to get some lunch. No, not me, just the locals.
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20 viewsThe water storage on top of a house.
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20 viewsYou may have noticed that most of the bicycles are very old.
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20 viewsThis is the Beijing Panda Zoo.
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20 viewsThis is the big yard where the pandas can play.
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20 viewsChomping down on bamboo leaves, their favorite food.
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20 viewsLunch is over and he just starts wondering around the play area. I was surprised how clean they are. Their eyes.....so adorable.
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20 viewsHe finally decided it was nap time.
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20 viewsYou could probably make a lot of money if you could open a bike shop around here.
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20 viewsWhat do we have here? MORE BIKES!
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20 viewsThis is the walkway leading to the square. I just love the trees.
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20 viewsI made it to the Square. Thousands of people visit every day. In fact, it can hold one million people for public celebrations.
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20 viewsHang on because it's going to be a wild ride! It was!
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20 viewsSpeaking of courtyards!
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20 viewsThe tour is over.......time to tip the drivers! = )
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20 viewsI couldn't tell if she was happy I was taking her picture or not.
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20 viewsFrankly, at this point, I needed a rest!
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20 viewsThis is one of the honor guards.
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20 viewsI love this photo of the couple. They were posing for someone else, so I took advantage of it. They are so classic!
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20 viewsTo me, this would be a teacher's nightmare keeping all of these kids together so they didn't get lost!
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20 viewsThis little guy was holding the flag of the People's Republic of China.
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20 viewsI thought he was an interesting character.
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20 viewsI think she was the last man's wife.
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20 viewsCaught this cute little guy as I was walking around.
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20 viewsThese guys were so cute that I just had to take a picture of them.
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20 viewsIt was fun going from one musician to another.
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20 viewsA few of them could speak English, so it was great talking to them.
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20 viewsI bought this beautiful vase and she was wrapping it up for me.
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20 viewsHere is what I have been waiting for. We are driving to see the Great Wall of China.
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20 viewsThere are several places you can go to climb the wall. This sign shows two of them.
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20 viewsAfter we get through this town, we will be there.
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20 viewsAfter we got off of the bus, this was the first gate we came to. So beautiful.
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20 viewsThis was the walkway that took us to where you could begin the climb.
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20 viewsI am having my picture taken in front of one of the stone statues that line the Sacred Way, the way to the Ming tombs.
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20 viewsAnd now a picture with the sitting elephant.
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19 viewsThis is one of the major streets in Beijing. One of Beijing's major problems is the smog. Also, it is only on these larger streets that you see nice cars. No bicycles.
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19 viewsIt took a couple of hours to get to the wall from Beijing. Once we started seeing it, the excitement was almost overwhelming.
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16 viewsHere we are at the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. It covers 667 acres and is four times larger than the Forbidden City. Emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties used to worship the heaven and pray for rich harvests in this temple.
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16 viewsAbove where I am standing is the courtyard, surrounded by a wall 633 feet. The wall is the famous "Echo Wall." If someone whispers into the hall, another person who is standing at the wall within a distance of 328 to 656 feet, can hear the speaker clearly. Wild!
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14 viewsThese are the awesome boats that took us across the lake and over to the Summer Palace. There must have been forty or fifty of them taking tourists around.
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14 viewsThis is the marble boat that was first built in 1755 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It was supposed to be a symbol of stability of the Qing Dynasty. There is a big mirror on each deck, and it is said that the emperor's mother often enjoyed the scenery while she had her breakfast and dinner in front of the mirror.
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