Day 3 Beijing 2006

Oh, can you say exhausted.  Another early rise morning for Cheri and me.  We just can't get past the 3:30 am mark.

So much to say about our second day in Beijing.  We had a full day of activities.  Starting at 8:00 am we went stopped by the jade factory where they make jade into everything you can imagine.  Then we drove to the Great Wall.  This was one of the highlights for me.  We all started out together but after the first set of steps that seemed to go straight up like a ladder, Cheri stopped and said for us to go on.  Next was Jordan and she went back to join Cheri.  Seth, Jack and I continued on, like real men would.  There were a lot of people at the beginning and the farther you went up the wall to the top the less people there were.  It was an incredibly steep climb.  Sometimes the steps seemed too steep that you felt like you would fall backwards.  We saw many elderly Chinese people at the top.  One thing that stands out to me is that the Chinese people seem to be in very good shape.  It took us 45 minutes to reach the top and a lot less to come down.  On the way down toward the bottom our legs and knees were shaking as we were taking each step.

We had to make several stops to rest and take pictures.  Jack, Seth and Jordan were a hit with many Chinese people today.  Everyone would look at them and giggle.  Several people wanted to take their picture and have pictures taken with them.  It must have something to do with the light hair because nobody wanted my picture or looked at me and giggled.    Some people would sneak pictures of Jordan.  They would stand next to her and then the person taking their picture would stand in a way they got Jordan in the background or on the side.  One man would point his camera up like he was focusing in on something and slowing bring the camera down where it would be pointing at Jordan and then take a picture.  Jordan played with some liitle children while we are climbing the wall.  She really enjoyed that experience.  Isn't it wonderful how language barriers can be broken with the little things and acts of kindness.

After the Great Wall we stopped for lunch at a special place they have for Westerners.  The restaurant is attached to a very large souvenir shop.  They have that one planned out for sure.  Then we went to the Summer Palace which is where the Emporers would spend their summer.  The Summer Palace was breathtaking and was surrounded by a walking path with Willow trees blowing in the wind.  We walked for a bit and boarded a boat for a ride back across the lake.  After that we decided we were beat and passed on dinner and headed back to the hotel to end our Beijing trip.

We did wander out to a mall near our hotel and ended up eating at the Bread. Talk  This was an interesting little eatery.  They had 20 or so different varieties of pastry type bread that had different things inside of them like cheese, milk, ham, melon or something else.  We purchased two small ones because we didn't know what they would taste like and we ended up going back for two more and then again for two more.  The young lady that was helping us kept laughing at us because we kept coming back.  She was very nice and she seems like she enjoyed talking to us, specifically Jordan.

That concludes our Beijing experiences so now we are off to Nanchang to get Eva.