Feb 27, 2011

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Ming Tombs and the Great Wall
Today we woke up to snow…according to Forest…first snow in 58 days…really?...does it surprise anyone that it snows the day we are supposed to hike up the Great Wall? ☺
We took a long bus ride to the tombs. Learned about how the emperors were buried. We next headed to a jade carving factory were we learned about the different kinds of jade (and how to tell real from fake). We had a group lunch.
Then on to the wall. It was quite pretty covered in snow. Funny…doesn’t matter what language one speaks…out of breath and I’m tired is very easily translated ☺
We climbed to the first guard tower. Some of the steps were icy. It was a little hairy in places but still awesome to be there.

On the way back from the wall a bunch of us spent time asking Forest lots of questions about China. We talked about a lot of the topics you don’t usually bring up with locals: health care, the one child policy, immigration, and so on. It was fascinating!

Tomorrow we head to Zhengzhou. The day after that everything changes…

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