Wed. 5 – Day 6 – We are heading to the village of Badaling. This is where the wall has been preserved the best. We are forty miles north of Beijing.

When given the chance, take the left portion of the wall as you look at it for your walk. There are often less tourists there. Walking on the wide wall you can see how two chariots could pass each other in two different directions at the same time.

The view from here is wonderful and the wall was of great military value in the ancient days of calvary warfare.

Did you know that the Chinese put rice flour into the mortar used to build the wall? The ancients had many more secrets that we have not rediscovered yet.

The Chinese invented nearly everything and we are only recently rediscovering what they knew thousands of years ago.

We saw the Ming Tombs of the 13 emperors as we headed back to Beijing. The road was line with giant stone carvings of real and mythical beasts standing guard over them.

We also saw the Temple of Heaven in its beautiful splendor.

When we went to the Forbidden City, we lost two of our traveling companions. They apparently got on a city bus. It happened to pull up next to us and we saw them at a traffic light where we had stopped. I jumped off our bus and got them off of the bus before they were perhaps lost forever in China.

We had waited quite a while for our guide to try to find them in the throngs of people walking around the area. Always remember to follow your guides instructions. This always makes for the best experience for everyone.

My son wanted to spend several days in the Forbidden City. It is quite a place to roam around in and study. There were many Chinese tourists on vacation around us as well. Many if them had never seen a caucasian person before. Think about how far out they might live and without electricity or television in many areas. Remember, this was in 1995.

Many of the locals were interested in the size of our son’s feet. He was fifteen and slim with size 11 or 12 shoes. The Chinese seldom see feet like these around them back on the farm.

We leave for Bangkok this Afternoon.