Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Danny, Sally, Daniel and Carmen!
February 21, 2009 The Great Wall
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA ……. Here we come!
Well, we had the combo Western/Chinese breakfast again this morning and it was sooo good. You might read about our breakfast quite often because it is the one meal of the day where we can find familiar foods. Remember, some of us are picky eaters….
So we left this morning at 8 a.m. headed to the Great Wall of China. On the way we passed the Olympic Village and it was unbelievable. If you remember ‘The Bird’s Nest’ from last year’s Olympics --- it was by far the most impressive. We saw the Swimming Cube, the buildings where the athletes stayed, the parks, other venues, etc. It just went on and on. Seeing it made me wish I had been here.
Something else worth mentioning is the traffic in Beijing. If you can imagine, there are 16.3 million people living in this one city. Prior to the last 20 years or so, most of those people would have been on bicycles but now they are in cars and buses……it would seem on the street at the same time!! The drivers here make New York look good. They are constantly weaving in and out, laying on their horns and it would seem making their own lanes. We are getting around on a bus and much of the time, you just close your eyes and pray. :o)
The drive up to the Great Wall was breathtaking! It is north and west of Beijing where two mountain ranges meet and is magnificent!! If you’ve ever been to the Grand Canyon and said that words just couldn’t describe it….well, this is even more so. We are in awe of the size, grandeur and detail of this creation. I will say that we are thankful our guide took us up to a point where we got on a 4-passenger cable car that took us up, up, up the steep mountainside to a landing of sorts where we could climb from there. Let’s just say a little will do ya on that! The steps were very steep. We were told in some areas as steep as 75 degrees. The steps are also very uneven making it sometimes treacherous in the crowds. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed!
We also went to the Cloisonné factory today. The intricate detail and beauty of this work along with the painstaking process of making them have us appreciating pieces that we couldn’t have imagined before.
We had a traditional Chinese lunch at the Dragon Land Jade Gallery. It was a fun time and we visited the Jade Gallery afterwards where we watched them carve and purchased a Happiness Ball. That sounds so simple but again, it was fascinating to see the process and detailed handwork in each piece of art.
For dinner, a group of us went to another Chinese restaurant recommended by Joy. No one there spoke a word of English and we laughed until it hurt at our ‘buckets’ of fried rice, the stares and how absolutely lost we were! Off to bed now. “Someone” is already snoring as I type….
