Shop till you drop. Oh, and the Great Wall!

3 weeks ahead of plan, we made our way to Beijing. We got there late at night but got picked up by our hostel so that was nice. We had praised Dave on finding us great hostels but we thought that would end when our driver took us to this shady street with no lights. We were wrong and it ended up that we're staying in an old Hutong. Good job yet again Dave! We went to bed early to get rested for our long awaited shopping excursion on Silk Street tomorrow!

Rise and Shine and we were on our way to Tiananmen Square (The world's largest public square, as you probably all know). We got there and saw Chinese and Korean flags. We are curious people so we asked one of the guards and he told us that the President was coming for a visit so that was pretty cool. We wandered around the square (Amy was quite jealous of the many tour groups with same hats and flags. We told her we would get some for our small group and she was happy). We took pictures next to the Olympic countdown: Only 73 days to go! We were in Beijing at different times 2 years ago and its become more westernized...we counted the McDo's on Dave's map and there are hundreds...craziness!

So after our sightseeing, it was time to go shopping! We were anticipating this moment since the beginning of our travels because we had all been there a few years ago. Silk Street is the place to shop in Beijing...you can basically buy anything for very cheap...fake or real, its up for you to decide! Our shopping excursion started at 3pm and finished at 8pm. We got awesome deals on shoes, boots, coats, glasses...and we think they are real or close to anyways. Dave and I got ready for Canada's winter with The North Face coats and pants for a real bargain! Even Dave had a blast and he's not into shopping at all. Its all about the bargaining. We soon learned that you have to start with a fifth of the price they ask for and then walk away. It worked everytime! Dave was the best at bargaining. Successful day!

Woke up very early the next morning for a day at the Great Wall. There are 3 sections that tourists can go to and we had all been to the more touristy one so we were excited to go to the quieter one this time around. We were a bit surprised when our guide told us that we had to take a cable car...but it was just to take us to the start of the wall. We warmed to the idea when we found out we could toboggan down! It was the first time for Dave and I and we were excited! We had 4 hours to ourselves on the Great Wall and it was awesome! We climbed two different parts, chilled out, took pictures with a few Chinese people (who had a dog with them and we were all impressed that it climbed the wall) and Amy took a nap to try to fight off her cold. It was soon time to go down and we all got ready for the toboggan down. What a fun ride! We couldn't go as fast as we wanted to because we wouldn't fallen down but it was still fun! Its not everyday that we can toboggan down the Great Wall! Ended the day talking to fellow travelers at the hostel.

Dave and I went to the Post Office the next morning to ship boxes home. It was quite an experience since no one spoke English so we had to use body language. In China, they inspect the stuff you put into the boxes so they looked into all of our neatly folded stuff. But all got done without too much hassle. We wandered around the lake and ate delicious noodles and dumplings. Did some sightseeing and saw a nice pagoda and a big park. We don't have any pictures of this because Dave and I forgot to bring our cameras again! This is the second time its happened, so hopefully we'll remember next time! Amy took the day to rest and feel better after catching a nasty cold. For dinner, Dave and I were excited to eat Beijing Duck. We went into this cute restaurant and ordered a whole duck to ourselves. It was delicious!

On our last day in Beijing, we went to the Summer Palace. We walked down the Long Corridor, took some great pictures and enjoyed the sights. It was time to leave for the train station. We got there only 15 minutes before we had to leave, which was a bit stressfull since the train station was huge and there were a lot of people everywhere. But we just made it to our train and we got settled in our hard sleepers. We had the luxury to get the top bunks where we couldn't sit because we'd hit our heads. Plus, we forgot to bring food and they didn't really have anything on the train. It was a long train ride and we were happy to arrive in Pingyao, very early the next morning. Stay tuned for our day in Pingyao!

Love, Sophie

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