Last Day in Beijing

We started this morning early to go out to the Great Wall.  The jetlag seems to be getting better, as most of got a relatively good night's sleep.  Dad still gets up at the crack of dawn to go visit the local McDonalds for coffee, but I'm not sure that counts as different :)

We left the hotel with Steve and Cindy (the other couple from our agency) and Sylvia (our local guide).  We first went to a jade factory, where they show you how the jade carvings are done.  It's certainly a ton of work for something so small, but they are beautiful.  Christopher really liked a giant pirate ship comploetely carved of jade, and really wanted to bring it home.  Somehow I don't think it would meet the weight restrictions for checked baggage.  At $60,000, it might not meet the restrictions for our checking account either.....

We left there, and went to the Great Wall.  It was absolutely amazing.  Something you've read about your whole life, but what you've read doesn't begin to describe it.  It felt so unreal to walk on something so old, and to think about how much work went in to building it.  Mom and Dad climbed a short ways to the first tower, but the stairs are so uneven and steep that Mom didn't dare go any higher with her knees being so bad.  It was a good thing she didn't.  The climb got steeper and steeper to get to the second tower.  Christopher did amazing, and climbed the whole thing!  He and Brian went up into the tower itself, and he was the subject of a Chinese photo shoot :)  So many tourists there wanted a picture of the little blond American boy who climbed the wall!  I think that down might have been harder than up - by the time you're headed back down, your legs just felt like Jello.  So worth it though!

Yes, the hike down is truly this steep.  I had heart failure with Christopher coming down that he would miss a step, but no one did.

We left the Great Wall, and headed for the Summer Palace.  It was honestly one of the most beautiful places any of us had ever been.  We've seen pictures of it before, but real life was more impressive.  The day was overcast, and our guide told us it was better on a sunny day, but the trade off was less heat and humidity.  Given how hot yesterday was, we'll take the cooler weather :)  Christopher really liked the ride in the dragon boat across Kunming Lake, but was really getting tired of everyone wanting to touch him and take his picture.  He is pretty shy, and it was tough for him.

We're leaving in a few minutes for the airport to fly to Benjamin's provnice.  Keep us in your thoughts today, and if you can spare some prayers, pray he does well with this transition.  We're so excited to see him, but he has no idea we're coming.  We'll try and update with pictures of him tonight, but the power cord for our wireless router actually caught fire, so we're limited to hotel wireless.  If it works well, I'll post some pictures tonight.