Ming Tombs - Beijing, China

Before making our way to the Great Wall of China, we stopped off at the Ming Tombs. As you can see from the picture, it was a chilly day. The tombs have a good history, but it wasn't the most interesting place we've ever been, we think it was a filler for the day tour. We've seen some online posts to avoid the Ming Tombs, mostly because it is a pretty boring tour and you aren't able to see much. On that note, you can say you've seen the tombs after reading this post and clicking on any of the other links!



History (Chinatravelguide.com):



50 kilometers northwest from Beijing City lies the Ming Tombs - the general name given to the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The mausoleums have been perfectly preserved, as has the necropolis of each of the many emperors. Because of its long history, palatial and integrated architecture, the site has a high cultural and historic value. The layout and arrangement of all thirteen mausoleums are very similar but vary in size as well as in the complexity of their structures.


It was originally built only as Changling, the tomb of Emperor Zhu Di and his empresses. This is the most magnificent of the tombs. The succeeding twelve emperors had their tombs built around Changling.



Only the Changling and Dingling tombs are open to the public. Changling, the chief of the Ming Tombs, is the largest in scale and is completely preserved. The total internal area of the main building is 1956 square meters. There are 32 huge posts, and the largest measures about 14 meters in height.It inhumes Emperor Zhudi, the fourth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Travel China Guide recommends the Lingsi Palace in its second yard as really deserving a visit. This is unique as it is the only huge palace made of camphor wood. It covers about 1956 square meters. The ceiling is colorfully painted and supported by sixteen solid camphor posts. The floor was decorated with gold bricks..... (click here to read on)





Entrance to the main hall












Emperor Yongle






The entire place was built without a single nail, an impressive feat in those days!









These gold ingots uncovered from Dingling weigh 385 grams each, marked with the name of the place they came from, date of collection, name of the official in charge as well as their weight and purity.







Silver ingots, each weighing l.9 kilos, were the type of money in use at the time. They were land tax collected from Zhejiang Province.











These are helmet, sword and armour worn by Emperor Wanli. The originals had decayed. They are reproductions.






The gold crown, for the Emperor, is woven with extremely thin gold wire. The weaving is done from top to bottom. The tiny holes must be the same in size. It is neat and graceful, displaying the high artistry in arts and crafts in the Ming Dynasty.

Beijing, China for the Lunar New Year

One of the reasons we decided to live and teach in Korea for one year was the opportunity to travel to various countries nearby. In December we took a 10 day trip to Thailand and spent New Year's Eve in Bangkok. During the Lunar New Year, February 6-10th we had another opportunity to travel to a new country. We spent 4 nights in Beijing, China! We were visiting China while there were crazy snowstorms going on in the Southeast, where there were power outages for days and trains were not running. Fortunately for us, there was no snow in Beijing! It was very dry, albeit equally cold.

Although we only had 4 nights in China, we had an amazing time and would definately go back during the Spring / Summer months! As you can imagine, there was construction going on everywhere in Beijing as the countdown for the 2008 Summer Olympics nears. Speaking of the Olympics, wow!! the amount they must be making off souvenirs.. more on this later.


Gate 47 at Incheon Airport, Korea.





There's our plane, fuled up and ready to go!



Another in flight meal! Rice, beef, shrip, a bun, cake and some OJ - decent, but nowhere near as good as the food on Thai Air!



TsingTao beer.. mmm free alcohol on the plane :)



The outskirts of Beijing





Our blog would not be complete without a picture with a creepy baby doll, this picture was taken in the washroom at the Beijing Airport - instructions on how to use the baby change table.



One of the control towers at the airport, promoting China Mobile and the 2008 Olympics.

We took a shuttle bus from the aiport to this train station which was located near our hotel. The cost was Y16 or $2.25 each ($1=7Yuan).

There were about 5 city blocks that were encompassed with the shiny architectural designs below. On the first level there were some upscale stores such as Tiffany's, Burberry, Omega, Louis Vuitton and offices for Audi just to name a few.

Stay tuned for the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City and more! (We're still sorting through pics, this isn't as easy as it looks!)

Scooter Rental & Hua Hin Market

It would normally cost 100 baht ($3) to get a tuk tuk ride from our hotel to downtown. As you can see, this would add up fairly quickly so we decided to rent our own scooter for the week instead, this way we were able to go when we wanted and stop anywhere along the way.
The first bike we rented was a manual, I didn't like it that much, it was a pain to drive in the crazy rush hour traffic on the 'wrong' side of the road. However, we had it for one day and managed.

The next day we traded it for an automatic, it was sooo much more fun to drive! I started weaving in out and of traffic with everyone else.. why wait for the big cars to slowing make their way ahead when you can drive between cars! I can already tell I'm going to be more of an agressive driver when I go back to North America ;)

Anyway, we paid about 900 baht for the week rental and then a little more for as - it was a great investment.

We both road with helmets and sat properly on the scooter, but you would see many people in Thailand without helmets and riding side sadle as well. You could also see 3+ people on one scooter, not to mention people riding with infants on their laps without helmets either!


The manual, in red!



The automatic, in blue! Let the fun begin!



Hua Hin Market











Video of a drive on the scooter



Video in the market - a Thai grilling up fresh seafood!

Days at the Beach - Hua Hin

After going to "Monkey Mountain" we went on to the otherside of the mountain to a nice quiet beach area to enjoy water and bake in the sun.

Here is jon and Eva walking towards the beach.





A little drink shop, not quite open yet.. I guess it was too early, although that didn't stop us from drinking the beer we brought!



Do you like the "prise" list, "thang you"


Up the hill were a few little shops selling tourists goods, a small temple, massage shop and a buddha standing 19m tall.



At this beach you could rent sunbeds all day for 50baht ($1.60).

















The pictures below were taken at a beach on the south side of the mountain, this beach was a lot busier but it was nice to people watch (until the 50+ yr old woman with dyed red hair like she fell into a jug of red kool-aid was sunbathing without a top on but wearing what looked like to us, her husbands speedo).






Here is a Thai woman carrying corn, a steamer and a stool to sit on. She was selling steamed corn to tourists along the beach. Passing her by, was another Thai who was selling clothing along the beach as well.



Beautiful isn't it? This depicts our time spent in Hua Hin - sand, water, sun, shade and Chang beer. You could a can of chang for 25baht at most local places off the beach, at 7-11 you could buy two for 44baht! On the beach a bottle went for about 40-50baht each, we usually brought about two cans each and then purchased one more from the local vendor.

Khao Takiap, Hua Hin, Thailand

One early morning we took a taxi to Khao Takiap with Eva to see a temple and some evil monkies, the temple is even referred to sometimes as Monkey Mountain. When we arrived, Eva was carrying a plastic bag, as she was walking a monkey jumped off the back of a truck and grabbed on to the bag and started knawing at it!

Khao Takiab can be written several ways in English: Khao Takiab, Kao Takiab, Khao Takiap, Kao Takiap, Takiep, Takieb etc. The name actually means "Chopstick Hill."



They remind me of the evil monkey on Family Guy.

As you look through the pictures, see how many monkies you can spot!













A great view from the top of the temple. That is looking towards Hua Hin.



Krista striking a pose.



A local fishing village. All of the fisherman fish at night, so the boats are in the harbor during the day, and at night the Gulf of Thailand is littered with fishing boats! The boats are really colorful, they all have the flag of Thailand, the flag for the King and their own family flag!



Here is a map of Hua Hin that shows the Baan Resort and Khao Takiap southeast.



Here is a great area map of Hua Hin from this website.



For a great selection of places to stay with discount prices visit Hua Hin Hotels for more information.