A trip (I week & I day)

Ceremonial hall of emperor Yongle and the
wonderfully serene surroundings!

So the Ming tombs weren't that big a deal. It was hard to figure out the historical importance of the sites since there were very few signs to tell you what you were looking at. The signs that existed weren't very logical either, so in the end I can only tell you this: Of the 16 Ming leaders, 13 were buried in this area. Of those 13, only 3 tombs are available to public. Of those 3, we visited 2: One from the third Ming emperor Yongle (who was a pretty awesome dude if you believe the signs: handsome, well-groomed, intelligent, etc etc etc) and one from the thirteenth Ming emperor, Zhu Yijun. Zhu Yijun's tomb is the only one to have been excavated, so you could go down lots and lots of stairs to see where he and his two wives had lain- but down there, there was nothing at all to see, except for some (pardon me the use of this word) crappy copies of boxes that had supposedly held his worldy belongings. 

Chinese people throw money at tombs.
I'm sure it's culturally relevant!

The only interesting thing about the tomb was the stone made to click into place after the tomb was closed so no-one could go in after the emperor and his wives (actually: wife and concubine) were buried. Also the fact that, if I remember correctly, there was a sign inside the tomb that told the researchers who opened it that no-one had managed to get there yet (which by the way isn't completely true... grave robbers are quite canny). The tomb of Yongle (the great guy) was not excavated, so really you could only see some type of large temple-like room on top of his supposed tomb-mound which was at least heavily renovated, but was otherwise quite nice and not as pretentious as for example the lama temple. 

Having fun in the van!

Anyway, although the Ming tombs might not have been the best tourist attraction I've ever been to, it was good to get out of the city. We went there with a group of 14 people from the U. school- we actually hired our own van. An Australian guy, U., took his guitar and we sang the whole way there. I even sang a song all by myself (I'm yours) which I was more proud of than I'd admit to the casual stranger (shhhhh!). It was great to be surrounded by trees for a while, and walk around the tombs (there is some beautiful scenery) in serene quiet. You really don't get that much in cities like Beijing!
  

Most of the crew together!

Not that I miss it terribly. I seem to have a large capacity to adapt to this city, I am not sure whether that's the cities fault or mine. In any case, I am used to MODERATE Chinese food by now (a little spicy? What do you mean?), as well as to chopsticks (really, I mean, using two hands to eat food is not efficient!). I don't feel so troubled by people staring at me anymore, I have learnt to ignore most of it. That was hard at first: I would look at someone in the subway sitting in front of me, and notice he was looking at me. As courtesy dictates, I'd look away. If I by chance would glance back, the person would still be staring at me. Now there are few people who would survive the shame of being caught staring at someone TWICE. That would immediately mean a stop in the staring, anywhere else I've been in this world. Chinese people, however, seem to be quite impervious to this type of thing. You might catch them staring 5, 6 times. I know from sources that some Western girls deal with it by blowing them a kiss, which seems to work fine on men (yeah THAT does seem to embarrass them) so I think I might try that someday, instead of slapping the person in front of me like I really feel like doing. 
Anyway, you learn to deal with it. I've learnt to risk my life every time I cross a street in order to get to the other side within half an hour (if there are traffic lights, wait for green and then try skipping around the motorcycles and bicycles and cars that turn who are all cheerfully colourblind. If no traffic lights are available, get together with at least, say, 8 people and walk, looking as self-assured as humanely possible, praying that the car drivers don't want to kill 8 people at the same time). I got used to not really understanding what I'm buying at all (today I used milk instead of cream for a sauce, weird brownish mushrooms instead of champignons, and noodles that looked like see-through plastic strings instead of spaghetti. I have decided to christen them ghost noodles.) I'm also completely used to my room and apartment now. I guess that human beings are just extremely adaptive. Or maybe it helps to have a background in messy South America. 

Lanterns...

...lots of them

For lunch/dinner we had Beijing duck, since one of my roommates (the Austrian one) is leaving quite soon and she had never tasted it before. I must say I wasn't too keen- I keep seeing the cute little ducklings swimming in the canals in my head. But I tried some, and was almost relieved to find I don't quite like it. At the same place we found a worm in our broccoli, which everyone except for me took with a calmness of spirit I would have believed impossible. 'It can happen anywhere with vegetables..' 'Yes, of course'. Outside the restaurant the street was covered in bright lanterns, and I thought... I could be happy here.