11 April 2011
Onto Guilin. As it is on a river, the specialties include fish as well as horse interestingly enough!

The limestone cliffs rise up into the mist as we travel down river past villagers fishing. High up the mountains stretch farms and rice paddies. It is very scenic and reminds us of traveling down the Nile with the oxen and water buffalo.

We depart for Xian tomorrow on April 8 – not sure whether we will have internet, so here are some pictures of the local transportation.

Woman in costume at the market. Lots of weird and wonderful food available – we passed on bull testicles and brined brain at the local hot pot restaurant. Down at the market we saw scorpions and starfish on skewers served deep fried. While waiting cooking, the scorpions on the skewers were still moving – very fresh indeed. Ducklings were for sale as well as some other mystery animal on the skewer – any ideas..

A new day in Beijing. It is windy today so that has helped blow away some of the smog in the city. This morning we visit the 13 Ming Tombs. Here the Ming dynasty rulers are buried , each in an underground tomb under a large mound of earth. Like the Egyptians, they are buried with their treasures and items they will need for the afterlife. Upon death, all wives without children are buried alive with the husband. Other wives with children are safe and live out their lives elsewhere.

In the afternoon we visit the Badaling section of the Great Wall. It is a magnificent sight seeing the wall wind its way up the down the mountains. Sections of the wall are very steep, we huffed and puffed our way up to the top before the wall winds back down, pinching ourselves that we are really standing in China on the Great Wall.

This building is a television station. It used to have a third leg, but a New Years fireworks celebration set it on fire and it burned to the ground in 90 minutes.

We pass the Birds Nest Stadium from the 2008 Olympic Games as well as the Water Cube. Next are some funny signs that have lost a little in translation.

Due to technical difficulties (Guys not mine), better pictures of the wall are stuck on the camera. Hopefully we will be able to retrieve them!