After we nearly slept through the Acrobatic Show last night due to exhaustion.... We had to be up early to meet our guide at 7:30 for our trip today. Funny thing is that I signed us up for a tour of "great wall". I don't remember the rest of tour name- "and MORE"! We first went to Ming Tombs. It was amazing to see the artifacts, make the climb up to the tower above tomb, and see how the ancient Chinese built the large ceremonial halls there and at forbidden City. My heart broke as our guide explain the reasons for everything at these tombs. They try to prepare for "paradise" yet miss the whole point.
Anyway, we left that beautiful countryside and had to pass on eating the most beautiful fruit!! Peaches, apples and unknown fruits we for sale along the roads of these orchards. They wrapped each piece of fruit in paper for sale. Oh well, enough about what we couldn't eat..... Our next stop was a Jade factory. I've never seen such as this. We saw some craftsmen at work, learned facts about Jade and then we were unleashed into a showroom. Some carvings cost more than my next minivan! Chloe chose a beautiful bracelet.
Next stop- cloisonee factory. Scott reminded us that our bags can't weigh more than 44 lbs, so no souviners from there.
Then Friendship Store for REAL chinese lunch. We ate it and it was good. They drink very little here and the small glasses of Coke are never enough for me!
Then we went to great Wall. Yes we climbed to the top of that section and declared ourselves "heros"! No one had a heart attack! We sweated off 3 lbs each. It was like the Amazing Race to me to get to the top. Scott said the challenge should've been counting the steps. Hee hee- I just wanted to go up and down alive.
Then we got back to bus excited we were down and going to get shower and BED early! Oh no....the guide just said we are going to Bird's Nest and then to a tea ceremony! The ladies in our group will get to watch the preparations of the different kinds of tea before everyone participates. Then... I hope hotel. It's been fun!! We wanted to call everyone from top of Great Wall, but it was 2am for you in the states.
Oh I almost forgot the craziest part of day- 1.4 million cars are on the roads in beijing along with motorcycles, bicycles, people cleaning the streets with stick brooms, small carts, and walkers! I admit even I don't desire to drive here!
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Wow! That was definitely "and MORE"!! haha. Praying you guys get very restful sleep tonight. I know the best is yet to come! Keep these updates coming!
ReplyDeleteyou could've called Juli and priscilla from the Wall at 2am. they were up :)
ReplyDeletethanks for keeping us posted!