At the beginning of June J had a meeting in Beijing so Baby O and I decided to tag along. We stayed the weekend and got to do some sight seeing (we still have a ton of Beijing to see). I'm going to write this in a few different posts to keep them each a reasonable length.
Our first full day of sight seeing we were up bright and early to head to the Great Wall! We went to the Mutianyu section of the wall. It was an hour and a half car ride, but it was well worth the early wake up. There were very few people on the wall and it was a beautiful sunny day.
This section of the Great Wall is one of the preserved sections of the wall. It used to serve as a barrier to defend the capital and imperial tombs from the north. This section was first built in the mid-6th century and then rebuilt in 1569. The wall was mainly constructed with granite. It is approximately 23-28 feet tall and 13-16 feet wide.
The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall has a few unique characteristics. There are 22 watch towers on the 1.4 mile section of wall. From the watchtowers guards could fire at the enemy on both side, which isn't possible at many other locations on the wall.
That afternoon we walked through Ditan Park. I didn't take any pictures, but it was a nice park. It would have been a good spot for Baby O to run around, but he happened to be napping. We also went to Yonghe Temple as it is just across the street from the park.
The Yonghe Temple, also called the lama temple, is a temple and monastery for Tibetan Buddhism. While we were visiting there were many people there to pray as well as tourist. The buildings are all beautiful with vibrant colors.
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