Our day started very early today when all three of us were awake by 3am.
We finally decided to get up by 5am and get organized for the day. Vaughn decided
to go look around. He discovered that it was snowing and very cold outside.
We met the group at 8:30am to begin our tour. We started our tour at Tian'an Men Square.
They said that over 1 million people can fit there at one time. Next we went to the
Forbidden City. It was so impressive and large. It just went on and on. While we
were there it started to snow again lightly. It was very pretty. Vaughn and I wrote Amelia's
name in the snow in the Forbidden City. Next, we went to a jade factory and took a mini
tour.
After lunch, we headed to The Great Wall. It is about 45 minutes outside of Beijing.
This was the highlight of our day! We picked a point on the wall for our goal to reach
and set out climbing the wall. It was very cold! Vaughn made it a smidgen of the way.
Then, he turned back for hot chocolate in the coffee shop at the base of the wall.
Janet and I continued forward. We actually went beyond our goal. Janet could have run
the entire way. I, on the other hand needed to stop and rest twice. The view was breathtaking
and the history was so amazing. I wished we could have stayed longer and climbed more of the wall. But, we had to be back at the bus by 5pm and you know, I like hot chocolate also. So, Janet and I headed back down the wall to the coffee shop. We each got t shirts that said "We climbed the Great Wall of China".
On the way back, we toured a pearl factory and had dinner. Both lunch and dinner were served
family style with all the food in the middle on a large lazy- susan. We were very excited that one of the dishes was french fries!! We returned to the hotel around 8 pm in the evening. We were exhausted!
January 21, 2008 Beijing Sightseeing
Janet, Cindy, and Vaughn inside the Forbidden City
