Day Two: Tour to the Ming Tombs, Jade Factory, Great Wall (Badaling), Tea House, and The Silk Market, Houhai (at night)

Ming Tombs: The Ming Tombs houses all of the Emperors from the Ming Dynasty. It was initially built because the wife of an Emperor died. He loved her so much that he wanted to find some place special to bury her. There are several different mounds that house the resting places of the Emperors. They do not know where the entrances to the tombs are, only some air vents that concubines threw themselves down to commit suicide when the Emperor died. They were not allowed to be buried in the tomb, only the wives were. After we did our tour of the tomb, we had to walk through this specific gate. When you visit the dead you are not allowed to come back to the living, so when we passed through this special gate we had to say "Wo hui lai le," which means I will return.

Jade Factory: We learned about the different types of Jade and also got to see a jade carver making some little jade trinket. Jade carving is passed down through the family. A father teaches his son the trade. Once you decide to become a jade carver that is the only profession you can do for the rest of your life.

Tips to tell if Jade is real:

1. Jade, when held up to the light, should look cloudy because of the minerals in it. No matter transparent the jade is, there will always be minerals, so it will always be cloudy.

2. Jade is also strong enough to cut and scratch glass without being damaged itself.

3. To tell the quality of the jade: hit the piece of jade with a hard object. Both types of jade will ring, but the higher quality jade has a higher pitch ring.

The Great Wall: We were very lucky that the weather was nice and cool when we went out to the Great Wall. Otherwise it would have been unbearable. There were so many people walking up and down the Great Wall. It is such an amazing structure and it was so beautiful looking out over the mountains. I was so in awe of it all because this Wall is built on the ridge of the mountain. So many laborers had to carry all the materials up to the mountain by hand. It's hard to believe that these structure could be built without modern technology.

The Tea House: After the Great Wall, we headed to Mr. Tea. It was a little tea house. We got to try four different types of tea and learned about their medicinal value. so if you are like me and stare at a computer screen for many hours of the day, you should drink Jasmine tea. It's good for your eyes.

The Silk Market: This place is huge. There are five floors of vendors where you can buy colthes, bags, shoes, silk products, and so much more. All of the vendors price everything super high and then you just have to bargain with them. Because we were foreigners they would give us outrageious first prices and then say " for you we give you this price. It's a good price. Best Price." It's so funny to bargain with people, but you better really want the item because if you bargain with them you should buy it if you can agree on a price or they get really made. I am definitely not a very good bargainer. I never know what a good price is to counter with. I just let my friends bargain because I was not really in the mood to shop, but if you like to shop the Silk Market is definitely the place to go.

Houhai: Houhai is a little area around a lake. The lake looked so beautiful with all of the lights from the bars and restaurants surrounding it. The places were a little pricey, but it was definitely worth walking around. We ate dinner outside by the edge of the lake and then walked around. As we walked around the lake, all of the bar recruiters were trying to offer us deals on beer so we would go into their bar. They do not give up. Because my friends are obviously foreigners, they tried even harder to get us to come to the bars by surrounding us and complementing us.