Day 3

Welcome to day 3 of our Chinese vacation. We woke to a cloudy day and it look as though it was going to rain. We had breakfast (what a variety) and waited for our tour guide. No not Mark, a real guide. Today was going to be the tour of the Great Wall and the Olympic venues. The great wall is an amazing piece of wonder and with its history an impressive piece of engineering. I can understand where the great artists get their inspiration after soaking in the Great Wall and it atmosphere.

A bit of history – The Great Wall was built in shorter pieces in the 5^th century. This was used to defend the smaller states from its enemies. The first Qyn emperor who unified china linked and extended the walls as a protection from other nomadic tribes. It was originally built by slave labor and considered the longest grave site in the world; many of its build were buried where they fell. Most people go to the badling area to see the wall. Not us, we went to mutianyu which is approximately 70 k from Beijing. This area isn’t as touristy as the rest, but there were still a lot of people. We took cable car up to the other sections and walk other sections of the wall. We had 90 minutes to wonder and enjoy the breathtaking views. From there we had lunch and again a lot of food.

The Olympic venues were our next stop where we visited the water cube and birds nest. Again, there were a lot of people. We were not allowed to visit inside the venues.

They then drove us to the market where the designer knock offs are. There was nothing we really we wanted so we left and went for dinner.

Since Peking Duck is Beijing’s specialty dish we had to try it. We were all somewhat full from lunch, we still managed to eat ½ a duck. It really is delightful dish. Tina tells me I can finish this part of the blog now.