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.

Guest Blog #5.5 - Mark's Parents

From the lost e-mails, another guest post from my parents (and this time including photos):

First full day in Beijing:

The best fact about life in Beijing: they retire at an early age so the younger people have jobs. Our tour guides parents are 47 & 48 and are retired. I LIKE this rule!!!

Gas is only $1.00 but parking is very expensive since there is so little of it; city was built for bicycles, not cars.

In preparation for the Olympics, the city is beautifying itself with plants. They have planted 2.4 million trees yearly since 2003.

But the best part of the day was the Great Wall at the Mutianyu section. I had to keep pinching myself that I was really here. The hike up to the cable car was somewhat steep but not steep compared to if we had hiked all the way up to the beginning part of the wall here. The driver called our guide at 1 PM to ask where we were-we were taking too long. In conversation later, she said that most people are only there 1 1/2 hours; we were there a total of 3.

We just kept taking pictures, climbing, taking pictures, climbing, taking pictures. . . . but never boring. It was SO beautiful. Words can not describe it. . . . awesome, phenomenal. . . . these words do not do it justice.

We will do the Badaling section on Friday but she agreed with what we had read. . . it is busier with more tourists, and pictures will always have other people in them. Also the vendors are very pushy at Badaling.

We stopped for a late lunch of Chinese and Dad actually ate the most of any of the Chinese meals so far, not counting the one at Temptations. Of course he may have been starving after the climb. He said the chicken with peanuts and a pork dish were very good. She will write down their names for us. We also did another tea ceremony where the different tea benefits were explained. We purchased the tea for longevity; also I enjoyed it the most; Dad only tried the 1st one.

Our guide Amy asked how long we have been married. . . 37 years. . . . wow, thought maybe we were newlyweds. We are different from other couples she has had (you knew that, but she said she meant different in a good way!).

After the lunch we took an optional tour of a ride on a rickshaw through the older neighborhoods behind the Forbidden City. Most have been torn down with the Olympic planning but this section is being preserved as an historic site. We went into a family's courtyard, the life style of the courtyard (old and now) was explained, and we could take pictures of the different rooms. The families who agree to open their homes do receive some monies.

The rickshaw took us through the Hou Hai section where the night life is active with the young people and tourists. We could picture the 2 of you having a beer here, taking pictures, and putting your stories into the blog.

We returned to the hotel, sat at the bar for a soda and beer, relaxed, Charlie had cheesecake, and then we retired to the room. Laundry to do now, then to bed, because we have a very busy day tomorrow.

P.S. The tap water at this first class hotel is not potable