The Sacred Way and The Ming Tombs

This was an interesting tour. All for some famous emperors! The Chinese are kind of superstitious. The Sacred Way means "the road to heaven." The road is lined with stone statues which are important decorations of the tomb. These statues are 12 human figures and 24 animals that all represent something different. Once you get down into the tunnels, they lead you to the tombs...along the way people leave money for good luck, note the PILES of money in the pictures! We went WAY down, 230 feet below the surface to see these 13 emperors tombs and their families! Again, they are buried in red boxes for good luck! 

The Great Wall of China

Wow! All I could think about was, the poor people that had to toil to build that wall! And they never finished it anyway so it never kept anybody out! During its construction, the Great Wall was called “the longest cemetery on earth” because so many people died building it. According to legend, a helpful dragon traced out the course of the Great Wall for the workforce. The builders supposedly followed the tracks of the dragon. Remember how I said the Chinese are superstitious? At one time, family members of those who died working on the Great Wall would carry a coffin on top of which was a caged white rooster. The rooster's crowing was supposed to keep the spirit of the dead person awake until they crossed the Wall; otherwise, the family feared the spirit would escape and wander forever along the Wall. Kinda creepy huh? 
Hope you like the movie! Sure was fun on the way down!!

Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City

Tienanmen Square is a very famous place in China. It is the largest city square in the WORLD! Many historic things have happened here in addition to the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, a very famous ruler who died in 1976. The day we were there, there were long, long, LONG lines waiting to see his body. So many people here in this city! 23 million!!! 

The Forbidden City is located through the arch above. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their families, as well as Chinese government. Regular people like you and me were not allowed in until 1976. It is made of just wood, and there are 980 buildings, so they had lots of ornate pots filled with water (see above) just in case a fire started! Now, you are supposed to rub it for good luck. It took us all day to walk through it! 

So Much to see, So Much to Do!

Kung Fu Show- we couldn't take any pic or videos, but it was really cool!

So today's videos are all about food! Which I need to add---is a little scary, but I am "trying" everything!

I will admit-we are looking forward to eating PIZZA Thursday night!

So Much to Share!

I may not be able to comment on your comments, as we are being censored here, so we get on, post, and get off...so I apologize in advance...Chinese Acrobat Show is an 8 minute video that you must watch!
This is a picture of my UNI IT cohorts and the High School Kids that are going to be participating in the Flat Classroom Conference on Friday. We saw the Ming Tombs and Sacred Way...that is where the important emperors and their families from the Ming Dynasty are buried..It is hard for me to keep up with it all and post it to here. In a few minutes we will be heading for breakfast ( a video to come) and then on to Tienanmen Square and Peking Duck for supper. More later!

A New Day

Today we toured a school in Beijing, The Beijing International School. We got to give our "S is for Stratford" book to a 3rd grade class of Chinese students who main language is ENGLISH!! They loved the book, and I told her we would love to skype sometime with her class of 8!!  We had lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant (see movie) and I MAY have eaten some monkey but I'm not sure! It was very good food!
It was SOOO smoggy here today that we couldn't even see the sun! I shot a little movie of the city and the people and the traffic so you could APPRECIATE how great it is to live in IOWA!
I will post more later, like the Acrobat Show that was AMAZING! Probably not as good as the Pre-School and Kindergarten's Circus Act---But it was close!! Gotta get some sleep.

    

Here We Go!

Airport Video click here!!

I don't know which is worse for this old teacher, sleeping sitting up for 14 hours or sleeping on a "bed" made of concrete with a little foam on it in our hotel! But- we are here, and I know I will survive! First video of the "airports." is above on my YouTube site.
 Last night we got off the plane, checked into our hotel and went to a Chinese acrobat show. Amazing. Will upload more later...don't forget to ask questions!