How great it is!. What an experience. We left the hotel at 9:00am and the drive was about 2 hours. We first stopped at a Jade factory and did a little shopping and then on to the Great Wall. As you will see from the pictures it was an amazing experience. Bob and I went as far as most of the group and few families continued upward to a part of the wall that you couldn’t even see and Nicholas joined them. It was a great experience for him. We got some really great pictures and the weather was great for climbing. It was truly breath taking. It was hard to comprehend the magnitude of this structure and the mountains that it is build on. The view from the top is simply breath taking. I have posted a few pictures. Beijing is a very large city and extremely over populated. Our guide Helen told us that Beijing has 16 million people and 11 million bicycles and that’s why they call it the Kingdom of Bicycles. You have never seen so many people in all of your life. It is unbelievable how many people there are here. Way too crowded for me. We stayed at the great wall for 2hours and then headed to a Cloisonné Factory and experienced how they actually make the Cloisonné. It was really neat to see the craftsmanship and there is a lot of work that goes into to making one piece and it's really not very expensive. From there we went to lunch and you'll never guess what we had to eat - CHINESE FOOD! It's only the third day in Beijing; however I am over the Chinese food, especially when they bring food to the table and it really doesn't resemble anything. Wait until you see the fish they brought out we still aren't sure what kind of fish it was. (That's pretty scary) When we asked the waitress what it was she said she wasn't sure. That's ok! Helen advised us that we need to leave for the airport at 4:30am tomorrow morning which is fine because as you all know tomorrow is the big day, "Gotcha Day." We will meet Alexandra Nicole at 5:30pm. We are so excited and can't until then. We saw two families at lunch today from Australia who just received their babies a few days ago and they were just beautiful. Well I better close for know and get packed for tomorrow. I know you are all anxiously waiting to see her pictures and I will post again tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Take care and the next time I post we will be a family of four.
