the great wall

First of all, let me just say that I am pleased to announce that I have snuck my way onto blogger. I found a site that somehow allowed me to "unblock" the blocked blogger. I still, however, can not get my pictures on here yet. It is my mission to figure it out this evening. I couldn't even attach photos to an email last night. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Today was our 1/2 day tour of the Great Wall and it was a perfect day for it. We were originally scheduled to go in the afternoon but our guide suggested we go in the morning b/c the heat and crowds are pretty unbearable in the afternoon. It was a perfect suggestion. Andy and I were both up at 5am this morning (actually, we were awake at 1am) so we were more than ready for our 8am tour. We drove about 1 1/2 hours through Beijing to the Great Wall. May I just add here that the driving situation in Beijing is craaaazy. Our driver literally drove almost the whole way honking his horn at every bicycle and car he passed. And there are lot of bikes and cars here! You really can not imagine it. Anyway, the Wall was just as it looks in pictures (and I do have some that I will try and post later). Andy made up for his episode in the airplane yesterday by hiking all the way to the top of the Wall. I only made it about 1/2 way. We opted for the shorter, steeper part of the Wall to climb. The steeper part was what made me decide to stay a bit behind. Yikes. Did I mention that I'm afraid of heights? I didn't really notice how high up we were until the steep climb started feeling much like climbing up a ladder. That was my limit. The great thing was that the weather was perfect...very breezy, sunny, not too hot, no humidity.

On the way back to our hotel, we drove by the Olympic Bird's Nest facility and the Water Cube. Andy and I had just kind of casually asked our tour guide about those places and she ended up having the driver go by it so we could take a picture of it. Funny thing is that our driver pulls onto a corner of the highway and stops just so that we could get our pictures. I was thinking, hmmm...this can't be very safe. But then again, it was probably safer standing in the middle of this weird, curvy highway than it had been actually driving.

After that we were talking w/ our guide again and she was giving us recommendations on what kinds of tea to buy here. (I will add that our guide is the chattiest, friendliest person in China. And I mean THE chattiest. We've learned more about China in the 6 hours we were with her today than I have learned in all my life.) Anyway, she told us she would stop by a tea house for us to sample some tea. And we did. We went the "the tea store" and sat in this cute little tea room and learned and sampled several different kinds of tea. Do you know that the Chinese people really do belive (and FIRMLY believe, that is) that tea is the key to solving and preventing most health problems. Our guide told us she drinks so-and-so tea b/c it is "good for liver." Andy said, "so you have a bad liver?" And she says, "oh yes." Andy says, "how do you know?" And she says, "b/c I have bad eyes." Hmm. And you know what? Somehow I ended up believing her. So I bought tea. Lots of it. If I start to look thinner, younger, and healthier in the next few months...you'll all know why!

Oh, and one more place today. The Jade Factory. I had three things I really wanted to buy in China. Pearls, Tea, and Jade. I got two of the three today. When I finally get the Great Wall pictures posted, check out my new necklace. It's Jade. And I got it near the Great Wall on our 15th wedding anniversary. Pretty great gift. Wonderfully great day.