The Ming Tombs

After we thoroughly exhausted ourselves on the Great Wall, we saw the Ming Dynasty tombs. Pretty impressive, though I don't remember anything that looked like a tomb or grave.

Here's a shot of the outer wall ( I believe).


And two of the main inner building.


I believe this is looking out of the inner gateway into the outer enclosure.


Another building and large incense burners in the inner courtyard.


And one of those "too cute for words" little kids hamming it up.


This is part of a ramp leading into one of the building, which is flanked by stairs on either side. The purpose of the ramps was so that the emperors litter could be caried up more easily.


And finally, two extra large incense burners in the inner courtyard. Yes, that is a lot of money surrounding them. People were leaving money. I'm sure this incurs some deities favor.


Thank you for viewing installment #2 of Melissa's much delayed China pictures. Stay tuned, because I am determined to get through these.

The Great Wall of China

If you thought I was never going to post any more pictures from China, or if you though I had completely forgotten... you're wrong. It's only been 5 months. I told you I'd get around to it. I refuse to go to Thailand until I get all of the highlights from China posted. Really. I promise.


A lovely scenic shot of the Great Wall of China.


And here I experiment with an artsy "through a window" shot.


This one I actually like. I think the doorway frames the background nicely. Now if only there weren't a million people there at the time.


This picture only gives you an inkling of the physical torture that is climbing the Great Wall.


And lastly, the trimphant climbers. Ok, actually this was taken before. We weren't so pretty afterwards. It was hot that day.

Alrighty. There's a couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure. I'm really going to try and be better about posting from now on. Perhaps more comments would motivate me...

A big congratulations...

...to the brilliant and ever fashionable Oana Vlad!


My girl here just got accepted to a masters program for marketing in Kobe! As you can probably guss from the picture, she is not Japanese. Yet she managed to go head-to-head with Japanese college students (read: absolutely no language assistance) and secure a spot for graduate studies. I'm impressed (and you should be, too!) but not surprised.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled web trolling...