Sightseeing

We had our complimentary breakfast first thing this morning. It is buffet style. They have cereal (with goats milk), some breads, fresh fruit, meat lasagna (no joke!...did not try), baked beans (no joke!...they were good), white sausage links (they taste like normal links), lettuce and all the salad fixings, cheese and lunch meat. It’s the strangest breakfast I’ve ever seen, but it was good. Amy might disagree. The weather today started out as all the other days have been SMOGGY! The visibility has been less than 1 mile since we arrived in Beijing. We can see the sun overhead but it is just a dim disk which will not hurt the eyes if look directly into. The temps have been in the 90’s. After breakfast, all 19 families piled into a giant tour bus and began our day. The traffic in Beijing is so bad it makes Los Angeles traffic look like a walk in the park. It is stop and go (mostly stop) for miles on every street. There are way too many cars for their roads. Our first stop today was at the cloisonné factory. Here women glue small copper ribbons to vases creating designs with the raised ribbon. They then fill the pocket with enamel and fire it in an oven - repeatedly. The result is a very beautiful vase with any kind of design that they can think of. They also make jewelry, Christmas ornaments, pens, plates…you name it. After the “factory tour” we were lead into their showroom. It was huge and the items were expensive. I hope to find better deals in the last city of our trip, Guangzhou. We re-boarded the bus and headed northwest to the Great Wall of China. It is very cool. As we approached the mountains, the smog lifted and we could actually see what was around us. The wall was visible from a long distance away. As we approached you could seen the thousands of people climbing the wall. It was quite a sight. Amy and I climbed the wall to the first tower. The top of the wall in this area is made of mostly steps. The steps range from 2 inch steps to about 20 inch steps. No two are alike. They are very steep and we gained a lot of altitude in a very short distance. The steep climb, 90 degree temps and the mass of people kept us from going very far. It was a neat experience, but I would rather see a section of the wall that was not a tourist trap. There were just too many people pushing their way up and down. Next was lunch at a Chinese restaurant for the group. The food was very good. The restaurant was connected to a very large jade store. The hand carved jade pieces were amazing. They ranged from small jewelry to a ship that was 9 feet tall and about 15 feet long. They had a tiger that stood about 5 feet tall. He was only $14,000. I had to tell Amy no. On the way back the weather cleared and we could actually see for miles while in the city. It was a very nice change. We drove by the Olympic village and saw the Birds Nest and the aquatic bubble cube where Phelps won all his medals. That area of Beijing is beautiful.We spent the night in the hotel room and ordered Pizza Hut mmm.

Only two more days until we meet Ella!