Ming Tombs and Sacred way
It Seems that the Dragon Lady feels that we should talk some more about the Magnificent view from the Wall, and how the Wall winds like a restless dragon across the horizon and beyond. How the wind nearly blew her over when she was close to Exhaustion nearing the last Guard house on our trek. She also thinks I should amplify more of my feelings about finally achieving a life long… OK…a 40 year dream, the raw emotion that swept over me as I took the last step into the uppermost guard tower on our trek, or how it got warmer and warmer as we got higher and higher [and windier and windier]. She also thinks I should apologize for being so brief and crashing before I got the Day finished, but I really don’t think any of that is necessary soooooo we won’t mention it.
On with our story
After we left The Wall, we headed to the Cloisonné factory which produced the vases and artifacts for the Forbidden city and saw how some of this magnificent combination of brass or terra cotta, copper and enamel come together, from the firing of the terra cotta to the addition of intricate copper wire to elaborate designs, to adding the first coat of enamel. The work is then fired in a REALLY HOT kiln which shrinks the enamel, then another coat is added and so on until the enamel is even with the depth
of the wire design and then polished numerous time until we get the beautiful glistening vases, teapots 
jewelry etc, on sale around the world. After the demos we wind through the tchotchke shop and up the elevator to an excellent lunch.Some of the foodies amongst you have asked us to comment more on the meals so blame them if these get a little longer than two pages and resembles a Food & Wine review from here out.
Day 3’s lunch is held in a restaurant above the factory and is one of the largest Government operated restaurants open to the public. The green tea was steeped to perfection, and the starters were fresh roasted peanuts and pineapple. The ox tail soup with just the right amount of tang was perfection with bits or meat and veggies. The Pepper Steak Szechuan style served in a hollowed bamboo casserole was the best I have ever had on any continent, not overly saucy with great pepper flavors from tiny red Chinese peppers. Another dish was Chicken in a citrus glaze with pineapple, all served with the obligatory steamed cabbage and white rice. This meal rated ****+ stars on Chucky’s 5 star system.
After lunch The Tchotchke Queen took over the tour and proceeded directly to the tchotchke store on the first floor. After many oooooohssss and ahhhhhhs and “Que Cute’s” later she has made a good dent in her “gotta bring sumpthin’ back” list and I headed to the cashier to asses the real damage.
We meet our driver and guide Zhang Yong and Zhang Teng [no relation] outside [I have been trying to get them to join us for lunch or dinner but it appears to be against all the rules [some archaic separation of the classes imposed on them by the agency that booked our tour] but I'll get them to break bread with us yet. [Ya know I will]
Off to the Sacred way which in ancient times lead to the “Ming Tombs” 
but are actually some a bit away and had no real function except to honor dignitaries and high officials with a lot of strange but elaborate stone carvings. It begins with the White marble arch and is followed, further down the road, by the Red gate.Next comes the Stone tablet Pavilion housing a giant Stone Tablet telling us we have arrived at
the Ming Tomb. The 
Sacred way is lined with 36 stone pieces along the way, 24 animals in groups of 4 each the first 2 sitting the 2nd two standing along with 12 officials, 2 of each rank. Originally built to honor the scholars and officials of the dynasties, it has evolved into a presumed avenue to the Ming tombs. It is a long and pleasant walk as the path is lined with lush greenery and the tranquility is very calming.We meet our driver a the other end and head for the Ming Tombs, and the boys get into a heated exchange over who knew the best route. Two U turns later… we arrived at the tombs just in time.
The layout of the Ming Tomb’s 44 sq/km area is designed as a tree with the first emperor Zhu Di at the head and the 12 others arranged by generation on each side downward to the entrance in perfect harmony.The site was selected by favored scholars of all the religious and
philosophical movements, Taoism, Buddhism, Feng Shui, the Five Element theory, Yin Yang theory and the Confucius School including it’s co-founder, my main man Meng Tzi the great thinker after whom I was named by my teachers. They located the right spot, and even sent so far as to tasted the earth to insure it wasn’t poisoned. They then invited the emperor to visit, feel the harmony of the region and approve. Once approved the work began building an under ground tomb that took 14 years to build and once competed the 300 skilled workers involved in building it were killed to keep the access secret.We only had time to get through the main hall which was enormous and after climbing to the
top for spectacular view, the guards advise us that the park was closing so after Chucky supervises the changing of the guard, we made our way down the manicured dragon path to our car and back to civilization… did I mention the Tombs were waaaaaayyyyy outside Beijing?We now arrived at Ya Wang “King of Duck”. We had purposely swapped the “Welcoming Peking Duck Dinner” scheduled for Day 2 as it was on the way back from the Tombs. The starters were some slivers of Very Cold Duck… not the liquid kind and a radish/beet item… not impressive. A tasteless soup and a mediocre Chicken Dish appeared as did the sauces and garnish for the main course. The Duck was surgically deconstructed table side and steamed crepes were brought to make hand wraps… for the King of Duck… they are living on reputation… not the quality of the food. The soup was not memorable enough to mention and I quickly abandoned the crepe routine preferring to mix he Duck with the ever-present Rice. Overall the King of Duck gets a ** rating. I will be sending the agency my thoughts on the meals and selections.
By now we are fried and we stumble back to the hotel where after a quick shower, I finished the NOWAT for day before and crashed early. Tomorrow we'll report on Fragrance Hill Park, The Summer Palace and a slight change in plans.
We are several days behind as the days have been long and our guide has kept us moving so much we are exhausted too exhausted nightly but very happy with the trip to date. This is actually being written on Saturday after a wild ride through the Hutong and having to pack for the flight to Xian. I'll try to catch everything up on the flight and on the way in from the airport as long as our guides there don’t have too much planned on arrival.
We certainly hope you are enjoying traveling with the Wacky American Tourist and the ever lovely Illy… if not… there’s always root canal, or the delete button.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the very wupped but very contented
Dragon Lady.
