Juyong Pass [居庸关] - The Great Wall of China [万里长城] @ Beijing, China

There were two Great things i learnt about China when i was really young; one, it has in its possession the GREAT Pandas that are absolutely the cutest creatures in the world and two; it has the GREAT Wall that supposedly stretches for 10,000 kilometers!

And i was, without question, extremely excited to see with my very real eyes how impressive the Great Wall was in my most recent overseas trip to Beijing. 

Juyong Pass was given the title as the world's number one mountain pass (天下第一雄关)! I am not sure how true that is since i am not known to be a well travelled person.

A mountain pass is described as a path between two mountains and we were given two options upon reaching the pass; the steep, treacherous one to our right and the slightly comfortable yet still as challenging one to our left.

The daunting right path.

My parents chose the left path. And so did all of our tour mates! I was disappointed as i would have loved to attempt the more dangerous route! 

Be very careful! The uneven steps could be very slippery and one wrong step might mean somersaulting down the stairs and hurting yourself real bad. 

Major road cutting across the overhead pathway! 

There was a famous saying regarding the Great Wall; you would only be a real man when you have climbed up the Great Wall. At the age of 60, my dad can now formally inform his friends that he is a real man! The stone slab with the words "不到长城非好汉" is the evidence!

The walled fortification as we see now was built in 1368 during the Ming's dynasty although the history stretched to as far back as the Qin dynasty! 

No matter what, it was still a long stretch of walk for all of us! And the only motivation pushing me forward? If an old man who appeared to be in his late 80s can climb further than me, so can i!!!!!

View of the opposite side; i am so glad my parents did not choose the other path.

Our selected path was not exactly easy as well; each step had a different height which could mean that for some of them, i had to literally hold on to the railing and pull myself up the steps! 

It was again another hazy day! A pity as the picture could turn out to be so much better. At the very least, the above picture did show the many watchtowers.

Taken inside Beacon Tower No 1! The smell of urine was incredibly strong and i only realised the reason when i made my way back to the entrance; there was no toilet along the way and this was the best enclosed area one could have in order to relieve him/herself. 

By this time, almost all our tour mates had raised the white flag! The Teo family is one stubborn family and we persisted in continuing the tiring expedition! 

See that red watchtower? That's our destination.

Another way that we can take but we made the decision to give it a miss as the scenery would likely not be as beautiful as the chosen destination which was situated at a higher elevation.

So appropriate to have this near the ending point!

A customary shot to confirm we have reached the end (at least for this section of the Great Wall)! Out of 20 persons in our group, only five (including my family) managed to make it so far.

Mountain view at the side; this would be breathtaking should you visit in winter. 

The end? Not yet!

Just another two hundred meters beyond the red tower. You can actually see remnants of collapsed walls beyond "the end" and i guess it would just not be economical to repair these walls for the sake of tourism. 

This was the same watchtower. As the building was locked, i could not explore as much as i would like to. In case you are wondering, we spent around 40 minutes to reach 'the end'.

Remember these roof guardians? 

Making our way back. By all means, going down was clearly easier than going up. 

For a person who is afraid of height, that uncanny feeling of free falling down the steps could be a bit unnerving although i would confidently say that walking down the stairs from that gaping big hole at Tianmenshan was worse! 

See that smug face?! And it was only for a short section of the Great Wall! 

Back to the main building of Juyongguan. You could see from the picture that the paint was dropping off the support pillars! On one hand, i thought this added to the authentic feel of this ancient structure even though on the other hand, it could also mean a lack of maintenance. 

Panoramic picture for the path we have conquered!

Metal notices informing visitors to protect the cultural relics were installed everywhere yet it didn't stop people from vandalising! 

Mom noticed some shops near the parking bay where our coach was parked and stopped me from going through these stalls that were selling one item for only 10 Chinese Yuan (approximately S$2)!

I was also contemplating to put on an ancient costume for a memorable photo shoot with the Great Wall as a fantastic backdrop when the tour guide came to us and said we were the last group to arrive! 

The time was 3.13pm. We were notified before scaling the Great Wall that we had to be back by 3.30pm. As far as i am concerned, we were ahead of schedule! 

Mom didn't want to inconvenience our tour mates and i could see from her face how sad she was since she was all gunned up for some heavy bargaining!

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (利兴福建虾面) @ Bukit Timah Food Centre [Singapore]

If there's one hawker centre i need to send my apology, it would have to be Bukit Timah Food Centre! 

I have known this hawker centre since i was in my teens, passed by it on bus number 171 numerous times, driven past it umpteen times and yet, i have never once stepped foot into it. 

It's never too late though as i finally concluded that hawker food is the way to go if i need to save some money for the rainy days i am expecting from December this year. And with that in mind, i persuaded Alex to have lunch with me at Bukit Timah Food Centre last Saturday.

There were many stalls to choose from but i decided to throw my lot with fried hokkien prawn noodle from the above stall; the owner has to thank the certificate from Singapore Food Map for my patronage!

Woah! Look at the amount of prawn gravy! For those who love those irritating slurps, you would totally dig this juicy plate of prawn noodles!

I admit i was hungry that day but i could not help thinking that this brought back childhood memories of tucking into a plate of nicely fried hokkien mee from this grouchy uncle in Chong Pang hawker centre. 

This is definitely not the sweet type some people would prefer although it was impressive to have that delicious aroma continuing to swirl in my mouth after i left the food centre! 

Sorry Xavier, no pork belly! 

=====

Location

116, Upper Bukit Timah Road,

Bukit Timah Food Centre, #02-145

Map

As above (red star).

Price

S$3.50 a plate.

Thirteen Royal Tombs of the Ming Dynasty - Dingling [明十三陵定陵] @ Beijing, China

With thirteen gigantic tombs spread over eighty square kilometers, it is impossible to cover the whole area within the ninety so minutes i was there; we did not even manage to catch a glimpse of those legendary elephant statues along the scenic Sacred Way! 

Therefore, we have to be contented with just Dingling; the resting place of Emperor Wanli, 13th and longest reigning monarch of the Ming Dynasty.

Dingling (circled in the picture), as contrary to what my tour guide told us, was only the third largest tomb (and not the largest) although he was correct that it is the only emperor tomb excavated so far in modern China history.

As we are aware, geomancy plays a very important role in the location of tombs for Chinese and for the emperors who aim to have their dynasty rule the land forever; they were all the more prepared to sacrifice labour and gold to build a massive mausoleum for their afterlife.

Walking is a travel necessity in China and i am not complaining! It's good to have some exercise and nothing's better than doing it in a temperature that hardly hovered above 20 degrees celcius. 

Compared to those stone and marble structures in the Forbidden City, unpolluted air at the Ming Tombs has thankfully kept the same structures in mint condition! 

Cypress trees seemed to be a favourite among emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties. 

The only elephants i managed to see that day. I was pretty disappointed (together with my dad) when we heard that the Sacred Way was out of our way and would waste precious time [Google map appears to refute what he said though; asshole]. 

Soul Tower - i would touch on this a while later. Before the tower, there was really nothing much to see as two of the main buildings have already been razed to the grounds, leaving just the base foundation. 

Making our way up and towards the entrance of the underground palace. 

Archaeologists gained entry to the underground palace via this tunnel! Don't belittle this tunnel as it was the only access point for the emperor's coffin and was accidentally discovered when the bricks hiding the tunnel collapsed. 

Entering the palace of the dead! As the chambers were located 27 meters below ground (equivalent to a ten-storey HDB flat), we had to walk down many flights of stairs. 

With five main chambers, both the left (the entrance) and right chambers were empty as freak weather then (we are talking hundreds of years ago) made it more convenient for both empresses to be buried in the rear chamber together with the emperor.

These coffins are merely replicates as the real ones were already decayed. As you could probably notice from the picture, it is a coffin in a coffin. Hence, according to the guide, the clothes worn by the empresses and emperor were in really good condition when they were first exhumed. 

Stone throne for the emperor in the netherworld! There were two other similar but smaller thrones for the empresses in the middle chamber. Note the amount of money on the throne! 

Five sacrificial utensils that consisted of an incense burner, two candlestick holders and two vases; items that hardly require the word "sacrificial". Frankly, i never thought underground palaces would be so gloomy and colourless! 

Stone gate at the front chamber which used some kind of a self locking mechanism. Xiao Cheng was explaining the concept for which i was lost after a minute. 

Diamond Wall (金刚墙) - the main gateway for the underground palace and was sealed with bricks after the burial. 

Exiting the underground palace by climbing up yet again a few flights of stairs! The cavity you see now was filled with earth before the excavation in 1956. 

Approaching the Soul Tower (明楼) -it symbolises the existence of the tomb and every material used to construct this tower was made of stone, not wood! 

An upright stone slab, like a headstone, was erected in the center of the tower with the name of the Emperor inscribed on it. 

This is like a scaled down great wall that surrounded the tomb; i wanted so much to walk all the way to see if there was anything interesting. As usual, time was limited.

Last look at the Soul Tower.

Vendors selling cute brollies! I should have bought one for Jovyn! 

Fancy yourself as the emperor or empress? Utilise the service of these photographers. One of the many regrets i had on this trip was not paying a small sum of money to don an emperor suit for the sake of being an emperor for one photographic moment! 

Aunties holding on to plastic bags would pester you to buy some fresh dates, which were unlike the dried red dates we are accustomed to. 

Map of Dingling for your reference!

Satellite map of Dingling! See that red star? That was the place where i stupidly took out 3 x 100 RMB to pay for a 30 RMB book (the 100 RMB note is red just like the S$10 note)! I realised my mistake within three seconds but by that time, the vendor had already pocketed the money and claimed i only passed her 3 X 10 RMB.

Bloody bitch!