The Great Wall

Facts according to our trip leader…

It got its start in 221BC , it’s the longest wall in the world (over 4100 miles), it’s the only man made object seen from outer space, work continued on the wall until 1911.

First stop was the funicular that took us up the wall.
Going up!!!
The funicular saved us a lot of steps!!
We walked on the wall !
Lots of steps on the wall

Beijing…. very modern and very old…..

First impressions…. the airport is super modern, lots of glass, lots of curving futuristic structures, and lots of people! 23 million in the city. Driving to our downtown hotel you first the skyline is full of high rise buildings. As we got into the city it is quite the sight of all the glass buildings. The city streets are clean and many tree lined boulevards. First impressions…. impressive!

Beijing ….. most of city has been a built in last 30 years.
Futuristic buildings everywhere!
Inside of the new airport. Being the architect on this project must have been fun.
The Bird’s Nest, sight of the 2008 summer Olympics and Michael Phelps 8 gold medals
Then it was off to Tiananmen Square…. The old part of the city features many historic sights.
The Forbidden City is next to Tiananmen Square. This day featured 7 hours of slow walking and standing in lines with lots of people. It was built in 1406 and was the imperial palace and home of emperors until 1924. It claims to have 999 and 1/2 rooms.
Halfway through the Forbidden City

Last night in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Our last night in Mongolia we were back in Ulaanbaatar and we were treated to a very nice performance. Ulaanbaatar has three schools of performing arts and contributes some very good professional musicians and dancers that continue to keep alive their rich culture of performing arts.

A very nice theater with good acoustics. They hold performances every night of the week, seven Dr months out of the year.
Last night in Mongolia we were treated to a great performance of traditional Mongolian music and dance
Throat singing!! Very interesting!
Great costumes. The men sitting down are playing horse head violins that make a pleasing sound with only two strings
The lap harp
Contortionist…. amazing!!! our guide said these performers have to start training about 4 years old to be this flexible.

Not our first rodeo…. however it was our first Mongolian Rodeo in the Gobi Desert

The rodeo features various events with many talented riders competing. One of the riders came from 900 kilometers away. They set up a temporary track and use the cars to create an arena to contain the horses. We got front row seats to the all day event and watched for a couple of hours. Then we went back to the lodge for lunch. We then came back to watch some of the finals.

There was a constant 30 mph wind and the horses created a constant dust storm!
They start young
The cars are lined up bumper to bumper to create the arena

Bareback riding
Gotta be tough

Using a long willow branch with noose to lasso horses while on horseback

The cowboy lassos the horse and holds on!
Bareback Bronco busting starts with several cowboys holding the horse
This event has the cowboy using a traditional rope and standing near the running horses. Once he lassos the horse he has to hold on get the horse to stop.
This event the rider had to pick up the willow branch lasso that was on the ground while horse is galloping.
Takes great skill to rope a horse that is running at a full gallop.
This cowboy did everything right and his rope broke
Our front row seats

Camel ride, fossil hunting, and sunset at the Flaming Cliffs

Not quite Lawerence of Arabia
Looking for fossils
Traveler Dan the dentist found a small jaw bone with teeth
The white spots are fossils in the cliffs being exposed thru wind and occasional rain erosion. This place, The flaming Cliffs was discovered in 1925. The archeological finds included the first ever discovered dinosaur eggs.
Preparing for sunset view
Flaming Cliffs at sunset!

Sunrise on the Gobi Desert

Then it was an archery demo and how to build a Ger. Using tourists for the labor and some supervisory work added a little time to the construction.

Patty outside our Ger at sunrise. No wind, total silence!

Patty says, “time for breakfast!”

Time for some archery!! Our SUV driver is also an archery competitor and previous champion!
Patty taking instruction and ready to compete!
Rod’s first attempt, not do good!!
The target, bulls eye is the middle of the red cups. Rod, on his third attempt got a bullseye! A lucky shot and he retired, resting on his laurels!
How to build a Ger! We watched the crew from the resort put together a Ger in about 30 minutes. These shelters are used by the nomadic herders as they move the herd of animals every 3 or 4 months.
They let us help! This meant it took them a little longer to erect the Ger🤣!
Like putting a puzzle together.
Patty and Peggy supervising the build!! Every job needs good supervision!

Off to the Gobi desert

It was a bus, plane, and wild ride thru the desert in a SUV.

Bumper to bumper traffic in Ulaanbaatar any time of the day. One hour drive to get to old airport.
A Cessna Caravan 9 seat airplane took us on a 2 hour bumpy flight to
the Gobi Desert.
All smiles before takeoff
Very slow130 mph cruise in very choppy turbulent air. 4 of the 6 travelers got 🤢 sick.
Finally landed
Happy to be on the ground
4 of the 6 of us are hiding their airsick bags
Very bumpy and fast one hour drive thru the Gobi Desert to Three Camel Lodge.
Our Ger
Beautiful inside our Ger
Our reward! Great selection of wine and bourbon

Our first morning in Ulaanbaatar.

The capital of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar and has a population of just over 1.5 million people. The country has only 3.6 million inhabitants.

First stop on morning one was a Buddhist temple. It’s about 250 years old with lots of history thru the years. it barely survived thru the communist era as the Stalin regime1940s thru 1950s) wanted to get rid of organized religion. Lots of the relics were hidden for years. Some were stolen, destroyed and or melted down for the gold.

The temples now as a museum