After the unbelievably amazing
breakfast....seriously... We took off in the coach heading toward the Great
Wall. It was a bit drizzly outside...which was good for climbing. The sun and
heat would have made it difficult ... But we would have had some better
pictures!
Walking into the area where we could buy some pieces...
From there, we
headed to the Great Wall. I got chills when I first stepped foot on it...not
even being able to believe I was actually there! The delegates took off in
groups of at least 4... With close to 2 hours to walk. I was surprised at how
steep parts of are...actually, it's all pretty steep! We didn't walk to the end
since it would have put Mongolia....4000 miles away! The higher we went, the
denser the fog. Like I said, we didn't get the sweeping views of the
countryside because of the fog/clouds... But at least no one had a heatstroke!
Adam and I walked a LONG way...and there's no way we could have done that if
there had been intense heat. It was just an amazing time!
THIS is Effee! He was absolutely an amazing delegation manager!
You can see from this photo how steep some of the parts were.
You have to know that Adam teaches Drama!
From there, we
headed to lunch...probably a 10 course lunch! I think most everyone is just
using chopsticks...no western silverware! Next was a tour of a jade factory.
It was really interesting...and beautiful.
One of their popular carvings of
jade is the 'happiness ball'. It's a ball (obviously!) but it has 3 or 4
layers. So the outside layer represents the family...the the layers inside
represent generations. There are 12 holes drilled into the balls...12
representing the 12 months of the year and the 12 signs of the zodiac. The
inner balls move around within the outside ball. The differing prices are
representative of the intricacies of the carvings on the balls. All together,
it represents generations of family living in harmony together. They're
amazing!
This is why I don't think I'd ever go to China on my own..without a tour or a guide. Most of the signs have no English translations, and you certainly can't tell anything from the characters. In every other country I've been to, and that's a lot!, you usually have an idea what the sign is saying...not here!
From the jade factory, we went to watch a Kung Fu school and
watched an amazing performance. After that, 3 of the guys in the performance
taught our delegation some Kung fu. They all had a BLAST! You'll just have to
see some of the photos later! ("Later" is now...here are the photos!)
Isn't he adorable?
If you could see this entire building, it's shaped like a dragon!
Next, was the Birds Nest and the Water
Cube...the sights of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We weren't able to go
inside, but we walked around them. Bolt...Phelps...they did well in those
venues!
Bird's Nest
Water Cube
Media tower
Dinner won't make the top 10 list! The first course was
salad...which no one ate. I asked and was told the lettuce had been washed in
mineral water...but none of us trusted it. A bunch of untouched salads were
left! Better safe than sorry.
Now here we are back at the hotel. Some
are swimming (you must wear a swimming cap), some just hanging out. Tomorrow
morning we lock up our suitcases and they go ahead of us to Xi'an. We each pack
our carry on with all we'll need for one night. Tomorrow night, we're on a 12
hour overnight train to Xi'an! Probably will be no wifi
tomorrow...
Effee said there's an app we can download so we can use
Facebook IF we can install it. He had to go to Korea to install it...after
downloading it here in China. He thinks we might be able to install it since
we're not registered in China. We'll see!
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