Behind Ming Tombs Jan 30 2008

It's Wednesday again, already. It is a beautiful blue sky day and Leslie chose this hike so that a fellow hiker (and photographer) who had hurt her knee could go with us. This translates into "it will be an easy hike today"... not exactly, as it turns out.
We drove up to a small village that grew up around the Ming Tombs. Here you can see the past with the grain grinding wheel that looks like it is probably still in use and the present with the brightly colored exercising equipment in the background. We all used the exercising equipment that morning because it was below freezing with a biting wind to boot.

We were waiting for Leslie to gather some information about the trails from the locals. Sometimes it takes talking to several people. Mostly they look at us and ask us "why?"

We were told to hike up behind the tombs and follow the dry riverbed to the top. Sounds easy.
We get to see all kinds of nature that doesn't get hidden in the winter, like this magpie nest; huge, isn't it?

This is the spirit bridge. It is the pathway used to bring the royals to their final resting place.

This is one of the Ming Tombs. It is called Kangding. It is closed and there are dogs inside barking at us. A car is parked outside..the caretaker. Most of the tombs are closed and many were robbed a long time ago. One woman with us who grew up here shared her stories of finding lots and lots of human remains as a child, so many when they were digging underground in the city, that they played with the skulls, making lamps out of them.

We walked for some time until we spied a caretakers home. There was smoke coming out of the chimney ( and public toilets out of the wind; morning coffee you know). The man happily directed us further up the road and confirmed that the route up the riverbed was the best way to go.

As we walked toward this gate a man on a motorcycle passed us and went through the gate and then shut it. When we got up to it, our sweet talking lady called to the people inside the caretakers cottage. A man came out and saw us all and called to her that we are not allowed in. Of course, sweet talker Carmen asked why and was told the land was national forest. He said that we were foreigners. She got tired of yelling and so told him to come closer because her throat was hurting her to call out. He did come closer and that was the end of that. He was in charge of the cemetary up ahead and Carmen assured him that we wouldn't smoke and most of us were Chinese (we looked foreign and all kinds of things could happen to us, he didn't want to be responsible).

Yay, we got it. The story doesn't end there. Just as we passed the caretaker shack, an older man came running out of the door in his stocking feet and said that we couldn't pass. He was the fire warden and so Carmen went closer in order to sweet talk him. She said "how do I call you? Sir? He responded "No, call me commrade!" Then she told us to walk and keep on going.

Good thing we did not plan to return this same way.

We are not in the riverbed yet, but here you can see the tops of mountains? That is where we were headed. The brush is thick and thorny.
I have to add this picture because the riverbed was overgrown in many places and very steep and difficult. The view from the top was worth it. Leslie was tempted several times to take paths that led away from the riverbed but they only went up to electric towers..how boring. Actually that is the valley that is Beijing in the distance. Look closely, the growing smog is the first clue.

Way up on top and after lunch in a semi sheltered spot from the wind we encountered this lovely sight. You may just be able to make out a circle of land that they left standing in order for the road to wind around it on the lower right hand side of the gravel pit. There is a concrete road leading to the site.

Our goal was this spot in the distance: Heavenly Lake . It is a resevoir on top of the mountain. We hiked to it and then had to climb the fence to get in. We were planning to get to the tower on top of the mountain in the distance then find the path behind it that drops to the valley floor.

We did take a detour to look at this begining of something. It was the strangest building I have ever seen. It was round on the exterior with stairs on the outside (you can see them left of center made of stone) and a valley in the middle with partitions on the inside. Remember that we are in the national forest. Hummmm.

This is the sign warning us to stay out of the resevoir water. There was a concrete road around the entire resevoir and markings that looked like racing lanes and trash can recepticles but lots of walls to keep people out.

This is on the way up to the tower on the hill. "Nuf said. Not sure if you can see it, but there is broken glass on the top of this wall.

This is a great view (if only we were closer) of the Ming Tombs. Look carefully and you can see a line of 4 buildings right of center. These are a few of the 14 Tombs in this area. This is also where we began our hike. Now to get down. We found that the tower is blocked off by locked gates and too tall walls (with glass on top). I did climb up a electic tower that was fully exposed with an accessable ladder. I love the warnings. We were happy that no one was about the place. We were very surprised though. We did, on our decent, stop at a shack and rattle the door. The lock was off it and two young men came out. Leslie just calmly asked where this path went. They were there surveying. Never a dull moment.

We are relegated to walking down a concrete road for 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). We are not happy after all of the adventures we just experience to be walking a concrete road. How utterly boring, not to mention, hard on the feet.

We wonder how long it will take us to walk because by now it is 3pm. Several attempts are made to call Mr. Zhao and have him pick us up halfway (remember the gal with the bumknee?). We are a little worried that since we are in the national forest, there will be a fee to leave (what! again???)

Mr. Zhao does turn up and tells us a funny story. He does encounter a gate at the entrance. He told the fire marshal we were up here. He didn't care until Mr. Zhao told him we were foreigners. The marshall let him pass toot sweet. Apparently a high official was due to visit the next day and they didn't want any incidents. First we had to be Chinese to get in and then had to be foriegn to get out. What ever works.

A hour ride home all recounting the days adventures. A beautiful blue sky day and a lovely sunset.