What does one do when touring Beijing? Why, climb the Great Wall of China, of course! Uh, yes. We had already climbed THE Great Wall of China, but that was in Dandong, where it was said the Wall started, but is not known because it is so close to the North Korean border. The 90 minute bus ride turned into a four hour drive to this Great Wall. Traffic was at a standstill. We all thought we could walk the rest of the way so at one point, we all got ou of the bus and started walking sure enough, traffic began to move and our bus came towards us. Just picture Little Miss Sunshine when everyone is running onto the bus!
Here goes, round two:
Marit is my hero!
Seriously killer steps!
And once again, I couldn't go further. Hotter temps and plus, this was my second time on The Wall. Here were the views from my vantage point:
The west Wall, which was very crowded:
After the Great Wall, we went to the Jade Factory-Exciting for me! Had a quick tour of how the jade is made and how you can tell when the jade is real or fake, then ate lunch in the same factory. Of course I wanted to eat quickly so I could go shop for jade jewelry! The factory was huge! I looked at most of the jewelry. Had a green and white ying yang pendant picked out. Then before checking out, I found a black jade and mother of pearl ying yang ring. Bingo! Perfect for me!
Our next stop, the Forbidden City. Along the way, we saw these driving past:
Another time driving somewhere, I can't remember exactly, we saw this:
The time crunch to get to the Forbidden City and catch the tour was getting slim. We arrived and had to hussle to get to the entrance. Our tour guide ran to the ticket counter while we waited at the entrance. He made it with our tickets with about 2 minutes to spare, if that!
The entrance to the Forbidden City are these gates with these knobs on them. The more shiny ones are because of everyone touching them for good luck and fortune since people were not allowed in the Forbidden City, and now being able to, the touching of these is a tradition.
We can always use good luck and fortune!
Various pictures of the Forbidden City, though you cannot get the beauty and enormity of this place via pictures!
On our drive to Tienimen Square, we saw some of the Olympic buildings.
The Bird's Nest:
The Cube, which is plastic and was the aquatic center:
And just some random interesting building:
Time was running short again so we only drove by Tieniman Square. Was iffy anyway if we would want to go see it in person do to the 25th anniversary and some unrest going on there. We were fine just driving by.
During the busy day, we had decided we would have dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant so the tour guide made the reservation for us. After we arrived back at the hotel, we all cleaned up and headed to the mall to the restaurant. No tour guide or anyone with us that spoke Chinese...so it was the blind leading the blind. We had no idea what the name of the restaurant was, didn't even think to ask our guide. All we knew was that it was located on the 5th floor. Well, the 5th floor was huge and had a ton of restaurants! Trying to ask the people at other restaurants was not easy. but lo and behold, we found it! My hubby had seen steam from tables in a restaurant so figured this had to be the place. Well, the people at the front didn't speak English and therefore, it was difficult to tell them we had a reservation. Luckily, there was someone standing there that spoke both English and Chinese so helped us out.
By the time we had sat down and tried to order the best we could by pointing to pictures, I wasn't hungry. I had such a bad migraine from all the touring and hot day. I managed to eat some fried rice but that was about it. My motivation to hang in there was that we would go to McDonald's for a McFlurry. Once I got my McFlurry and fries, I felt so much better, thank goodness!
We walked around the area of the mall where there were traditional Chinese items to buy. The only thing I bought was a brass Buddha head. It was tough bartering, but once we walked away without buying it, the price was lowered even more, score!
Now it was time to pack and prepare for our departure the next day. The others in the group weren't leaving until the following day, but I wanted to get home since I had been gone three weeks already! We met some wonderful people that were in our group. Was great being able to create new friendships and laugh and share tears with those that have a heart for Holt like we do.
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