The Great Wall, Hot Pot Lunch, Olympic Sites, Beautiful Park and Chinese Acrabats Show

Today we had a new guide named Carol.  She was just as lovely as Grace was.  It was great to hear her story and know her.  She was very knowledgeable about the places we visited and about Chinese history.

We started the morning eating Chinese breakfast (well, what I had was more like lunch) and then got on the road to The Great Wall.  The actual Chinese translation is The Long City!  LONG IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!  I knew it was big, but to see it in pictures is nothing like it is in real life!  This is a must see for everyone!  We took a lift (like a ski lift up to the section that we were to climb).  There were sections of the walk that were very easy, and others that were very steep and uneven!  Silly me... I didn't think to take my inhaler with me and I could have used it!  Oh well... I am still alive!  To think that it was built all by hand and that animals carried the stone that was used to build it!  Carol, our guide told us that many people actually lived on the wall, when you consider the "military" that were there to guard along with those that built it, it was like a city.  When we climbed down, Alexander and Jeff took the "alpine slide" down to the bottom.  Carol and I took the lift back down.

There were people there to sell Great Wall items as well as other stuff!  We bought a few things and then went back to the car.  We then drove by the Olympic Park to take pictures and wow, the Water Cube and Birds Nest were HUGE!

We bought tickets to the Acrobat Show and then went to lunch.  We had Hot Pot, which is similar to The Melting Pot cooking style!  It was very very good!

After lunch we went on a walk through the park.  They have rides for kids, playground equipment, boat rides and exercise equipment.  There were many people there of all ages.  We saw many babies being cared for by what appeared to be grandparents.  The park was very peaceful and pretty!

The Acrobat show was amazing.  A few things that they did we have seen before in Branson.  The part that made my heart thump fast in my chest was when 5 motorcycles were driving together (very fast) inside this huge metal ball!  If their timing was off by even a 1/2 of a second, they could have crashed!  That was AMAZING to watch!

We went back to the hotel and walked to a small market to buy some candy that is from Beijing for Alexander to share with his school class!  Back to the room for resting before bed... and now it is 6 AM and I have been awake since 3:30 AM!  I hope to sleep on the airplane today!

Hangzhou, here we come!