The Sacred Way was a long way,
lined with large animal and other figures.
Including camels.
Here Don, Vicki, Leslie and Ken stand before The Great Wall of China. Never thought we would type or say that!
We don't know who the duffus in the white shirt is. But he will be in this picture forever.
Looking at another section of the Wall from where we were.
Ditto
Ditto.
We made it to the top of this section. Not bad if you ask me!
This is the Olympic Sports Center in Beijing. Those are video screens on the sides. Looks like a flame on the top!
The "Birds Nest" Stadium. This is where the opening / closing ceremonies will be for the Olympics.
Next we went to a Jade factory where we were able to watch workers create Jade statutes/figures. Of course, then they wanted you to buy something. Jade is an important symbol in the Chinese culture. We purchased a Jade year of the Dog pendant for Megan and a year of the Monkey pendant for Carly. This will be a gift to them when they're much older.
We had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant -- luckily this was buffet style so we could pick what food we wanted to try. Last night's Peking Duck restaurant was pretty interesting... There was a Cloisonne factory located here so we could see how they make Cloisonne vases. The amount of repetitive detail work is amazing and certainly explains the prices.
Finally we made it to the Great Wall!! The opportunity of a lifetime. No, it's not why we came to China, but what a thing to see if you can. It was much steeper than we certainly thought it would be. The slope was at a good pitch, and the steps were not all the same height. Some taller than others, but the tall ones were tall. It was a pretty humid day, and there was quite a bit of haze in the air. Don't know if that was smog or what, but it was there. That was a little disappointing. The mountains around the area looked beautiful and you could see the parts of the wall winding around. We got about half way up on our portion of the wall ( yeah we owned that sucker), and what do you think we heard. You bet, thunder. What the flipity flapity poo poo kinda luck is that, to get to the Great Wall of China and get rained on. There was a fortress at the top that we made it to, then the wind and rain came. The wind must have been from the North, because it was a COLD rain. So after waiting in the fortress for a while, we made the hike back down... still in the windy and cold rain. The climb up was enough, but by the time we got back down, you had the leg strain shakes. You know, like you just hiked the Great Wall of China, then had to hi-tail it back down to avoid getting struck by lightening or blown off the side by wind, kinda shakes. It rained for a while longer so we just gave up. We did get some pictures and video though!
The final tour place to a Chinese Medicine center and foot massage. Ken & Don requested pretty girls. The four of us were in the same room and four young people came in to give our foot massage. Much to Ken & Don's disappointment, we got the women and they got men. It was too funny. The Chinese Doctor talked about how in America doctors have to run blood or urine tests to determine you health but that in China they look at your hands, feel your pulse in both hands and look at the color of your tongue. They were able to accurately tell our health conditions.
Dinner was at another local Chinese restaurant where they brought a variety of dishes and soup to your table. Several of the dishes where unrecognizable. Leslie of course is still the picky eater and the only one in the group still eating with a fork.
Time to go! LOVE YOU CARLY!!!
Ken & Leslie.