We slept a long time last night and woke up to our alarm at 7:30 this morning. We got up and dressed and then went down for some breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. It was a strange concoction of pretty
much every type of cuisine you could imagine, only a little bit from each kind but together it was quite a large spread. Linda met us at 8:30 in the lobby and Mr. White took us to the Jade Factory. Another guide showed us around the factory and we got to see men carving and polishing jade and then lots of different types of things made from jade. Vandita had told us before we left to not buy anything in Beijing because it was all over priced and you could find the same things in Hong Kong for much cheaper. After looking around a bit,
and being constantly followed by one of the sales associates, we said we were ready to go. Linda seemed a little disappointed that we didn't buy any jade but we told her we had picked up a few pieces at the Jade Market in HK and that seemed to satisfy her.
We got back in the car and drove a while longer and then started to see parts of the Great Wall of China. We drove through a portion of it and on all the hills all around you could see it stretching as far as you could see (through the smog). It was really cool to see it so close up. Mr. White dropped us off and Linda walked us up to the entrance of a National State Park.
We were at the Badaling portion of the Great Wall. Linda took us into the park and up on the Great Wall. She pointed to one side and said, "This side is a simple walk but there are lots of people this way." She pointed to the other side and said, "This side is very steep and difficult but there are much fewer people this way." Peter and I were feeling ambitious so we chose the steep path. Linda stayed at the bottom and Peter and I started our climb. It started off
pretty good but soon it got really steep. Some parts had steps that were about the height of two or three steps and some didn't have stairs at all and you had to practically walk sideways to keep from falling back. There was a top peak with a tower and that was our goal. We stopped several times
to catch out breath and have some water and then would walk on a bit farther. The whole time we discussed how we couldn't believe we were actually here and it seemed so unreal. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the marvelous sight of the Great Wall stretching beyond the hills.
We finally made it to our goal and took a nice long rest before heading back down. The wall continued to go on of course but we were stopping at the tower. There were definitely less people this way and though the hike was harder it was worth it to be away from the crowds momentarily. The way back down was a lot easier but you did have to hold on pretty much the whole way because it was so steep and you would surely fall otherwise. Throughout the walk we would stop
and take pictures for couples so they would have a shot of both of them instead of one and we also asked a couple people to take our picture for us. Back on the ground we found Linda in a coffee shop and sat to have a drink. Peter got coffee and I got hot chocolate, both of which needed sugar added to them. We then walked back out of the entrance and found Mr. White who drove us to lunch.
Today we were having Suscian style food at "the best restaurant around". Linda ordered for us because no one speaks English and then left us to eat. The restaurant was really cool and large and you could tell it was quite fancy especially compared to the places we had seen so far. The food was pretty good. We had three dishes and none of them were
spicy, Peter was disappointed with that, and one of them wasn't our favorite thing we had tried so we didn't finish that one off. Again we ate completely with our chopsticks even though Linda had the waiter bring us silverware. We filled right up and then Linda came back to get us, our next stop, Summer Palace. This is a huge palace that was built for the Dragon Lady
and Linda told us all about the history of it and the emperors who ruled during it's existence. Everything was quite fascinating and I enjoyed all the stories. We were fortunate enough to come right as the flowers on the trees were blooming. We were told that the trees only bloom for a couple days and then after that all the flowers fall off. The gardens were
enormous and very well kept. There were a lot of people there today and Linda said it is always busy except in the winter. We walked to
the end of the long corridor (the longest one in China), stopping only for ice cream and pictures, and then took a dragon boat back to where we came in.
The view would have been a nice one if you could actually see anything through the haze of smog. I really don't know how people can live here with this air. It was already about 5 so we headed
back to the hotel. Because of the smog and pollution in the air my eyes really bothered me. I didn't think to bring my eye drops and my eyes were stinging pretty bad by the time we done exploring. On the way we stopped and got some pictures of the Bird's Nest that was built for
the Opening Games in the Olympics. Right next to it was the Water Cube for the swimming sports and next to that the dragon building (a string of 5 buildings altogether). We had arranged for a
couple masseuses to come up our room at the hotel and they were already there when we got back. Peter and I both enjoyed a wonderful hour long Chinese massage. Mine was great, especially on my calves which were sore from the last 8 days of walking many many miles. Peter
said his massage hurt a little bit but he felt good afterwards. I felt extremely relaxed and was ready to sleep but we still needed to eat so we headed to the grill downstairs and shared an Australian steak dinner.
It was good but the baked potato was pretty gross and the butter had no flavor on the bread. After a nice shower I was more than ready for bed.
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