{"id":2886,"date":"2009-10-29T20:40:22","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T01:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news\/?p=2886"},"modified":"2018-10-14T02:23:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T21:23:08","slug":"time-to-play-tourist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/time-to-play-tourist\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to play tourist&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2888\" title=\"Ming_Tomb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ming_Tomb1.jpg\" alt=\"Ming_Tomb\" width=\"437\" height=\"313\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2889\" title=\"Mao_Ming_Tombs\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mao_Ming_Tombs.jpg\" alt=\"Mao_Ming_Tombs\" width=\"437\" height=\"328\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2890\" title=\"Ming_Tomb_Sally\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ming_Tomb_Sally.jpg\" alt=\"Ming_Tomb_Sally\" width=\"437\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2891\" title=\"Jade_factory\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jade_factory.jpg\" alt=\"Jade_factory\" width=\"437\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2892\" title=\"Ev_Richter_Great_Wall\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ev_Richter_Great_Wall.jpg\" alt=\"Ev_Richter_Great_Wall\" width=\"437\" height=\"316\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2893\" title=\"Great_Wall_Evelin_Richter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.robertlpeters.com\/news2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/Great_Wall_Evelin_Richter.jpg\" alt=\"Great_Wall_Evelin_Richter\" width=\"437\" height=\"550\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Beijing, China<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Today Ev and I linked up with about a dozen other Icograda delegates from various countries for a full-day guided outing (by means of a mini-van commandeered by our unstoppable guide \u2018Sally\u2019) to the north of the city, taking in a portion of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ming_Dynasty_Tombs\" target=\"_blank\">Ming Tombs<\/a> (where 13 <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ming_Dynasty\" target=\"_blank\">Ming Dynasty<\/a> emperors are buried); lunch (replete with rigorous \u201ceverything you need to know about <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jade\" target=\"_blank\">jade<\/a>\u201d instruction) at a government-owned jade factory; and then an afternoon ascending a portion of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Wall_of_China\" target=\"_blank\">Great Wall of China<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Badaling\" target=\"_blank\">Badaling<\/a> section) along with several thousand others. The weather was outstanding (though a bit hazy for good photos) and we felt fortunate to take in this outstanding experience in the good company of friends. A fine day we won\u2019t soon forget\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>Photos: The ubiquitous security, here at the entrance of one of the tomb buildings; a photo of <a style=\"color: #999999;\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mao_Zedong\" target=\"_blank\">Mao<\/a> at the very same spot taken the year I was born (notice the same tree to the right); Sally with yellow flag in hand trying to rally our troupe of designers (a bit like herding cats) in the Ming Tomb courtyard; a skilled jade carver (without proper eye, mouth, or ear protection)\u2014Ev and I each ended up acquiring custom-carved seals featuring our respective initials; Ev on the Great Wall (alongside my good friend Gediminas Lasas from Lithuania); yes, it\u2019s crowded at the top\u2014and according to Chairman Mao, once you\u2019ve been to the very top of the wall you can truly be called a \u201chero.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beijing, China Today Ev and I linked up with about a dozen other Icograda delegates from various countries for a full-day guided outing (by means of a mini-van commandeered by our unstoppable guide \u2018Sally\u2019) to the north of the city, taking in a portion of the Ming Tombs (where 13 Ming Dynasty emperors are buried); [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16172,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions\/16172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}