2400 Year-Old Dead Guy

Thank God it's Friday and we're finally heading home! Since it's a slow news day here in on the island I thought I'd blog about the 2400 year-old dead guy we saw yesterday.

In 1983 while building the Guangzhou China Hotel, by accident construction workers made an incredible find when they unearthed the tomb of King Nanyue. Remarkably the tomb was fully intact and had never been disturbed and was later declared one of China's major historical sites.

After an 8 month legal battle, the China Hotel developer was understandably required to build his hotel next door. After unearthing many treasures, a museum was built on top of the original site with many of the artifacts put on display throughout the museum.

Here's the entry to the original resting place of King Nanyue. He was buried with his cooks, concubines and slaves. They estimate he died between the age of 40-45. If you worked for the king, it was in your best interest to keep him alive as long as possible as your employment and life ended with his.

Sorry for the poor photography, but although time and water disintegrated much of the body and original silk thread, here's the reconstructed jade shroud that covered his body.

Here's all that remains of the King.

These are a few of the musical chimes/bells found in the tomb. In all 10,434 historical relics were unearthed at this site.

Just a few final thoughts/comments. Although very long, the trip was a success and Jax is gradually getting use to his new family with each passing day.

Our only disappointment was getting rained out on the day we had scheduled to visit Morgan's orphanage. The orphanage director was very kind and said that Morgan has an open invitation to visit as long as she works there. Even thought it's not what we had hoped for, we are sending "then and now" pictures of Morgan and two other girls from that orphanage we intended to deliver personally.

Well, that's it from China. We're going to pack then do a little shopping to kill more time. Thanks again for following our journey and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Take care and hope to see you all soon!

The Harbours