Beijing Day 1

Pic from our walk this morning...


On our way!


(8:10 pm Thursday night as I'm typing)

We had a fun day today. We had a little more time than expected this morning before we had to be ready to than we expected. So we started out with a stroll to check things out. It was a pretty gloomy day today. I didn't expect to see much of the sun while we were here, but today was exceptionally gray. We even had to bring our raincoats along for the tour. We visited a different section of the wall than we did during our last trip. We were at the Mutianyu section this time. It really was beautiful, but I wish that visibility has been better so we could've enjoyed the views a bit more. I'll have to search images to find some good pictures of that section of the wall.

Crazy Vendors!





It was fun to ride the chairlift up the mountain. Hope even did great with that. She has done amazingly well so far this trip! What a sweetheart. She fell asleep twice on the tour bus this afternoon.

One of the fun perks of visiting this section of the wall is the opportunity to take an alpine slide down the mountain when you're finished exploring. I think there was a certain someone here who was pretty disappointed the slide was closed due to the rainy conditions today. That someone may just have to bring his son back here with him someday for another chance. :)

A couple snapshots...You can see just how overcast it was this morning with a pretty constant drizzle.








Crazy men who coerce you into taking pictures with them and then beg for $$. We saw this coming. Ron gave them what amounted to about $2 and we just kept walking. Cute pictures though.





After a couple hours trekking up and down the wall, our guide took us to the Chinese medical center that apparently played a pretty important role in the Olympic games. They had a display of chairs that the diplomats had used when they were spectators at the various events. We were all treated to a brief foot massage. Then, the doctors were paraded in to try to convince us to take advantage of some of their herbal medications and therapies to treat whatever ails us. No worries. We left empty handed. HA!

On our way back to the hotels we had the chance to drive by the Olympic village, bird's nest, and water cube. I guess both of the big buildings have ticketed tours for those who are interested. The big stadium is now being used for concerts and the occasional soccer game. Our driver from the airport told us the water cube has been turned into a kids water park.


Hope with our guide Angel (a.k.a Miss Wong)


Time to wrap up for the night. We have another big day tomorrow. Here is my favorite family photo from the day.


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