1/29/2010 Beijing /Great Wall

Today was our first day in Beijing. The weather was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining the whole day and there was really very little smog! We set off from the hotel at around 9am with the group and headed north toward the Great Wall. We first stopped at a Jade factory and store where we were shown the how jade is cut and carved. It was a certified government run store so that all of the jade sold was guaranteed to be the real stuff. We shopped around a bit and Caroline bought two items, some sort of gizmo and a bracelet for Charlotte. We then kept on heading north out of the city. We could see for quite some distance and got a better view as to how the mountains ring the city on the north. They are similar in shape to the foothills outside of Denver, but the vegetation was more shrubby and less trees. I suspect that the trees were cut long ago. We passed the Olympic velodrome on the way up and I was thinking how happy the cyclists would have been to be racing on this clear day instead of two years ago.

We arrived at the Great Wall and when we stepped off the bus we were greeted by very strong winds. We bundled up and headed up a section of the wall on the east side of the valley. The first sets of steps were steep, about 2 to 1 and we clambered up as fast as we could to keep warm. Once on we reached the first tower, the grade lessened a bit and we traveled the ridge to the north. The views were spectacular and we thought about the many hands that constructed just this portion of the wall. It is truly amazing that this is only about a 2 mile segment. We completed the loop on the eastern side of the valley and by this time we were hungry and ready to get back on the bus. We were headed to lunch and to do some shopping.



We headed back toward Beijing and stopped at the Friendship Store. From what I can tell, this is basically just one of the many tourist stops that we will visit to wring a bunch of money out of us. We had a quick tour of a Cloisonne shop where we saw how they formed the copper bowls, vases, etc, applied the designs and porcelain which were then fired, ground and polished into a final product. We then went upstairs for lunch which Zhou had pre-ordered for us. We had a traditional Chinese lunch, and then had about an hour to shop in the store. We picked up a few paintings and porcelain items. We continued toward Beijing and stopped at the Olympic venues for a quick walk. We walked by the gymnastic venue, the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest…..very cool! Back on the bus for a short trip to then Beijing Theater where we saw an Acrobat show….amazing stunts! By this time we were all tired, cranky and ready to get back to the hotel. We arrived back at the hotel about 7pm, and debated dinner, but decided to just take a shower and go to bed.

Tomorrow we are off to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square. The forecast is for sunny skies and 48 degrees F!