Beijing Day 2

 

We spent another full day touring today. This morning we headed out towards the Great Wall, stopping at a jade factory on the way. We learned quite a bit about jade--did you know there are many different colors of jade, including white, purple, brown, and many shades of green? We also learned how to tell whether jade is genuine or not (it can scratch glass) which will definitely come in handy once we go to Guangzhou and the many vendors try to pass off fake jade as real...

Next, we hit the Great Wall. Words can't really describe the sight of this ancient wall winding its way through the mountains, so check out my photos! It was very steep. The experience was slightly tainted by the presence of a bazillion vendors hawking their wares. Like I wanted to buy ANYTHING to add to the weight I was hauling up the wall!

After the Wall, we had a delicious lunch of Korean barbecue (and of course William wanted to drink White Lightning (our name for the local liquor)and beer.) Ahhhh...just the thing after a long hard climb...NOT!!

After lunch, we hit the Summer Palace where a good Empress (I forget which one) built a complex for herself to spend her summers at. It was quite beautiful, with a lake and lots of trees.

Now we are off to a Peking Duck dinner...tomorrow, we head for Wuhan, and Monday we get Josiah!

Click on the picture below to see our Picasa web album for today.

Beijing day 2