Hall of Supreme Harmony (Great Wall pics coming later)

supreme_harmony
Originally uploaded by Wasting Moments.

Now I find a relatively cheap Internet Cafe, with decent cheap coffee and the ability to upload photos of cd. But I don't have a cd of photos, since I haven't been at the hotel since 7 this morning. Once again, I'm just starting to get accustomed to Beijing and I'm leaving tomorrow.

I spent today up north, visiting the Great Wall and the 13 Tombs of the Ming Dynasty Emperors. Actually, only went into one tomb, and spent the rest of the time wandering around the complex.

The Wall is huge. Climbed about a mile segment of it over the course of a couple hours. My legs are probably going to be killing me tomorrow. I probably took over 150 pictures today, so there will likely be some posted in the near future. I ended up going to the Badaling section of the wall, which is the main tourist attraction and significantly restored / rebuilt. I was hoping to get to one of the less crowded, more genuine sections, but the logistics would have been tough. There's a cheap tour bus you can pick up near Tian Na Men Square that takes you to the tombs & the Badaling with a couple of irritating diverisions to a wax museum, a store that sells all things jade, and a massive junkfood emporium. The total trip took about 10 hours, with a 2 hour stint at the Tombs and a 3 hour stop at the wall. Traffic gettin back into town was insane. I thought Boston, Montreal and LA were crazy traffic-wise. This has them all beat hands down.

Here's another pic from the Forbidden City to hold you over until I get some of the Wall & Tomb pictures up. It shows the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the Three Tier Terrace below.

I'm pretty tired already, but I'm going to head down the street to try and track down this Tibetan joint for dinner. Maybe pay a visit to some of the shopping areas. Hopefully, I'll be able to get over to the Summer Palace tomorrow before my flight to Xi-an.