We docked in Xingang , China which is the gateway port to Beijing. This is a dismal dusty industrial port city with no redeeming tourist value. I probably would not have got off the ship if I wasn’t headed for Beijing.

The bus ride to our first stop which was the Ming Tombs was about 2 l/2 hours. The smog did not improve and the road was a dusty and bumpy four lane road. Not exactly a modern road system and the scenery along the road was dusty and dingy looking. Even the outskirts of Beijing was smoggy and gray. We did drive by the Bird’s Nest one of the buildings constructed for the Olympics and the entire complex was a welcome change.

We were told that it was a good idea to leave all valuables including passports on the bus and that they would be safe as the bus driver would be there. We came back after one stop and found the doors wide open and the driver fast asleep. At least 20 of us boarded the bus and he never woke up. His snoring was incredible. Note the over-exposure of his photo. This was just before my camera wore out.

After a so so lunch we went to the Ming Emperor Tombs which was quite an interesting sight,. The younger lady in the photo is Judy, Peggy’s daughter who boarded in Hong Kong with her husband, Andy. They have only opened one tomb but are holding off opening others because of the conditions. Apparently they had quite a collapse because of the sandy ground and until they know how to shore up the walls they are not opening any other tomb of an emperor.

We proceeded to the Great Wall and it is quite spectacular. I am even more in awe of how the soldiers with armor, cannons, ammunition and whatever else they were carrying could climb the steps. I had to be satisfied with just seeing the wall as I would not climb the steps. Some of the steps are 12 inches high and very steep. The smog did not dissipate so everything was photographed through the film.

We then motored to the Peninsula Hotel and it was truly a five star hotel. Beautiful. We even had a good amount of time to get ready for the Peking duck dinner that evening and it was quite nice. That was my main gripe about the other overland. Not enough time to get ready for dinner. My camera gave up and I will be without a camera for the Forbidden City etc. Fortunately, Melvin will download his photos so I will be able to include them in a post on that subject. However that post may be out of sequence because I don’t know when I will get them. I now have a borrowed camera (thanks to Gerta) and will be able to photograph Cheju City, South Korea for my next post.

I am adding this postscript. We have been having problems getting on line. Apparently the network traffic is so bad in Japan that we are kept out at certain heavy load times. So it will be touch and go for my posts until we leave Japan .