Our First Day In China

On Friday we went with 2 other families to the Great Wall. It was a picture perfect day.

As we drove up to the great wall our guide told us the Chinese saying is ...

If you haven't been to the Great Wall you haven't been to China and if you haven't been to the top you aren't a real human being.

Well we made it to the Great Wall so we can say that we have been to China. It was an amazing day. We hiked up the steep steps and stopped quite often to take some pictures. The view was breathtaking and we often said things like "wow" or "this is amazing!"

We also made it to the top so we can truly say we are "real human being!" Again we stood in awe as we took in the view from the top. I will say the trip back down was much easier than our hike up!

We then headed to the Jade Factory. In China they are known for their Jade. All the Olympic medals were made from Jade when the Olympics were held here.

We watched the process on how the carve each piece by hand. It was amazing. The ship in the picture above took 2 1/2 years to make. The details were incredible. We had a wonderful lunch with our group to finish off the tour.

After lunch we went to Hutong Lane. Hutong Lane is a local neighborhood in Beijing. We were taken in Rickshaw's through the neighborhood. We learned about the daily life and culture of the local people. The posts on top of the door represent the status of the family. Boys were not to marry below their status. Also the decorations around the house and the number of steps leading up to the door told a lot about the status of the family. There were typically many family members that lived behind one door. You could typically tell how many different families lived in one home by the number of gas meters there were outside the house. Most of the houses didn't have their own bathrooms so there was a public shower room and restroom in the neighborhood.

One of the local ladies opened her home to us. She shared about her family and the daily life of the Hutong people.

We got back to our hotel and decided to head out to one of the local restaurants for Peking Duck. We were told we need to try the duck while we were in Beijing. We were starting to get delirious for the time change catching up with us as we sat and waited for a table. We then tried to order but no one spoke English and we had no idea what we were doing. We wanted to try a little duck and something else so pointed at something that someone had a table next to us that looked good. The waitress came back with our receipt to ask us if the price was ok. Good thing she did because the dish was well over $200 US dollars. What a shocker that would have been to get the bill. Needless to say we scrambled to find something else. It was another night of laughs and good memories. By the end of the night we were more than ready to have our heads hit our pillows.