Whew!! Between keeping us constantly moving and immersing us in the local Chinese culture, we are a tired bunch after our first full day here in Beijing. The day stared bright and early; at 8:30am we were done with breakfast and on the bus headed to the Jade Factory and The Great Wall. First stop was the state run Jade Factory -- about 100,000 square feet of nothing but jade!! A shopper’s delight. We picked-up a few small trinkets as souvenirs. It was really educational as they explained about all the different kinds and levels of quality of jade. The workmanship on the items there was absolutely beautiful. It was then on to the Great Wall!! What a spectacular site. No pictures can truly do it justice. We spent 2 hours hiking up one of the steepest sections of the wall in 88 degree heat. It was fun and the scenery from the high points was beautiful. Downside is that we are all gonna have VERY sore legs tomorrow. From there we went to lunch at a local restaurant for some more adventurous local cuisine. Well, if we have come to learn one thing very quickly, it is that a poo-poo platter here is NOTHING like what you get from the Chinese restaurants in the states. We are already asking ourselves if gold fish crackers constitute a legitimate food group?? Jacq brought along a stash of them and they are disappearing rather quickly. Anyway, enough about the food -- When lunch was done we headed back to the city where our guide was able to get us tickets to the Chaoyang Theater to see the Beijing Acrobatics World performance. It was amazing!! For a solid hour we watched the most amazing acrobatics any of us have ever seen. The kids loved it too. Tomorrow is another "walk-your-feet-off" day. We start at Tiananmen Square at 0830 followed immediately by a tour of the Forbidden City. After a quick lunch we are scheduled to go on a "narrow street tour" of Old Beijing. Then we head to the airport for a 6pm flight to the city of Chongqing in Sichuan Province. We're down to 46 hours until we get Meili. Everyone is excited and looking forward to that special moment.
More tomorrow!!
Jacquie, David, Bridget, Andy & Megan
Craftsman at Jade Factory
Long Shot of the Great Wall
Close-up of the Great Wall
Dave, Bridget, Andy & Megan on the stairs at the beginning of our Great Wall climb
Acrobatic Tigers from Beijing Acrobatics World at Chaoyang Theater
