wall-to-wall

this is day 8 of my program's week-long trip.


This morning we took a bus ride to what seemed like a barren plot desert, but there were actually tombs beneath the sand. The one we saw was the Wei & Jin Dynasty Tomb. The tomb was made up of three tiny connected rooms and the bricks were covered in paintings depicting the life of the buried person. 


We spent the afternoon at a UNESCO heritage site: the Jiayuguan Pass. The pass was used as a strategic fort on the ancient Silk Road. The architecture was really beautiful. 


There were quite a few people on the trip that had super fancy DSLR cameras, thus we spent quite some time at tourist spots taking glamour shots and action pics. Needless to say, there were quite a few ninja photos on the Pass. 


The last site we went to was the Overhanging Great Wall. It was constructed in 1539 during the Ming Dynasty. Just like the part of the Great Wall near Beijing, the steps were uneven and many of my groupmates were out of breath by the time we reached the first watch tower. 


That night we got on another overnight train.