Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Great Wall - Yow!

On Tuesday morning, our tour group went to the Temple of Heaven, one of the largest temple complexes in China. More inspiring than the architecture - Hall of August Heaven, Red Step Bridge, Echo Wall, Seven Star Rock, Hall of Abstinence - was the park setting itself. Hundreds of people engaging in physical and spiritual exercise Groups of retirees practicing tai chi, various martial arts, flying kites, ad hoc operatic concerts...it's like Central Park with heart. Our local guide, William, has bonded with Kate. He loves her grasp of the language, she his exuberance and humor. The rest of the day included visits to a silk museum, a local marketplace, an acrobatic show and a Peking Duck dinner.
Wednesday morning, we visited a jade factory and walked the Sacred Way at the Ming Tombs. Sixteen Ming emporers are buried in the hills, spread over fifteen square miles. The Sacred Way is a four-mile approach to the tombs, lined with 36 stone statues of soldiers, animals and mythical beasts. The morning was misty, the arrow-straight walkway secluded and quiet, lined by weeping willows. It was an eerily beautiful walk, thoroughly rejuvenating...Which was a good thing, since the morning was spent clambering, climbing and clawing our way up the Great Wall. The section at Badaling, where we went, was built around 1505, during the Ming Dynasty. It was restored during the 1950s and 1980s, and has tourist amenities, unlike other sections of the wall. I don't think you could ever find a time of day when there weren't a gazillion people climbing alongside you there. But it was awe-inspiring nonetheless.