The Great Wall of China & Beijing

Today was our first full day in Beijing and it was packed! This morning we met the last family in our travel group (there are 6 families from our agency in all), and I must say we have a really great group. We all met for breakfast at 8am and I've never seen a breakfast buffet like this (we are at a Holiday Inn but it is way nicer than the Holiday Inns in the states). It had tons of food including Chinese and American choices and since we were going to the Great Wall today we made sure we had a nice hearty breakfast.

After exchanging some money we left the hotel at 9:30am and headed to our first stop which was the jade factory where we learned about jade, the history of jade in China, and jade carving. We learned that jade comes in colors other than green including purple and if you know then you know the purple ones were my favs. We saw tons of beautiful jade pieces from jewelry to animal figurines to huge statues.

These horses are all carved from jade

After the jade factory we headed to the Great Wall of China and on the way our guide gave us some background information about the wall: The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty.

Our guide, Zhou, telling us about the Great Wall

Although it was a clear and sunny day it was also chilly and windy, but once we started climbing the hundreds of steps we warmed up quickly (talk about a workout). The pictures really do not do it justice and I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that I was standing on the Great Wall of China - it was truly amazing!

  



We were so lucky to have a photographer in our group and she took this amazing photo.
Photo Credit: Jamie Escola Photography

The ladies of our travel group (one of the families brought their daughter adopted from China a few years ago - she was a trooper)

The men of the travel group including our awesome guide Zhou "Uncle Joe" (far left)

By the time we finished at the Great Wall it was well into lunch time so we headed out. Our guide had already made a reservation for us at a local Chinese restaurant and after touring the factory on the first level where they hand make items from copper (vases, jewelry, figurines, and jewelry boxes we sat down to a delicious Chinese meal. I was not expecting to like Chinese food at all, but I love it (we all already knew that Jason would love it). Everything I tried was so good and I am really bummed that I didn't get a picture of our table with all the food (I will try to get one tomorrow). After lunch we drove over to see the 2008 Olympic village and also some of downtown Beijing (which is a huge city).

copper factory

buildings and sights around Beijing