Ming Tombs

Also visited the Ming Tombs today a bit south of the where we saw the Great Wall at Badaling.  While it was pretty cool to drop down over 100' underground to go see these excavated tombs that were built around 1400 and then excavated in 1956, it was tough to compare to the Great Wall.  While we expected to see some very ornate art and sculpture, it is basically just a mausoleum made out of stone.  What is pretty cool is the location as it is located deep into some rural countryside just outside of Beijing and gave us a better feel for this area outside of a bustling city with gridlock traffic.  There are cherry trees and many roadside farmers selling fresh produce nearby.  Having hiked several miles with some serious elevation changes, we were excited to get back to the hotel for some food/drink and to sit down.  After enduring some pretty tough Beijing traffic and some narrow escapes from other vehicles, we made it back to our hotel for tea time and sat back to relax.  When we pulled in to get dropped off, there was a pretty ritzy wedding going on with many of the hotels limousines queued up with the bridge/groom and wedding party.  The local security were giving our driver a hard time about him dropping us off at the front door, and the heated exchange in Chinese was pretty interesting.  Our driver was pretty convincing though and he delivered us to the door.  Tomorrow we leave for Nanning in the south, about a 3 hour flight and the location where we will finally meet our daughter on June 1. 

J