Tuesday in Beijing …… Making Up for Lost Time

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We met for breakfast at 7:00 all wearing the tour group red T-Shirts that Kayla designed. We are staying at a beautiful, well-appointed hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet which is a dream come true for AiLi. She had (not necessarily in order), baked beans, egg over easy, rice, corn on the cob, congee, sausage, bacon, toast, watermelon, milk, tea and tomato juice! It wasn’t pretty but she was in her glory. Well fed, we boarded our tour bus at 8:00.

We had a very full day as we were trying to fit in some of what we missed because of our day delay in Chicago. We headed north to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall of China. Over the top touristy … yes …but an amazing sight to see and even more to climb. The girls climbed to the 8^th guardhouse section with Eric Awtry, their intrepid guide. That is a lot further than most people go. It is not easy to climb even a small portion of the wall as it is VERY steep and the steps VERY uneven and slippery. It can be dangerous if you don’t pay close attention to where you are going. The girls did great and were so proud of themselves.

On our way back to Beijing we stopped at a Jade factory and learned a lot about the beautiful treasure mined in China and valued around the world. And of course we did a little shopping! The jade factory conveniently had a very nice restaurant so we stayed for lunch. We enjoyed a traditional group lunch of many popular Chinese dishes served on a huge lazy susan (14 of us around the table). The dishes were delicious.

After lunch we visited the beautiful Temple of Heaven and walked through the myriad of parks surrounding it. The weather was perfect, low 70’s. Afterwards we visited a silk factory where the girls learned about how silk was made and of course we were encouraged to purchase some of their handiwork. A delicious dinner in the same communal style as lunch followed and then on to an evening performance of “The legend of Kung Fu.” It was billed as a martial arts show but it was much more than that. It was more of a cirque de soleil type show with elaborate sets, acrobatics, performance acting and yes, martial arts. It was outstanding! We were in the first row and the girls were mesmerized, start to finish. They were given the opportunity to have their pictures taken with the performers after the show.

It had been a very long, very full first day in China and despite a little jet lag, the girls did great. We are so thankful to be able to expose them to many of the same experiences that made us fall in love with China on our first visit.



Karen

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Comments

[Uncle Jack]

What about the bullet train?
Hey guys, how about some photos of the bullet train? How many get to go 303 km/hr on the ground ...where you can feel it??