Beijing

Sorry for the delay in the post. We got home late last night and were so so tired. Plus we had to get everything packed to fly to Guangzhou this morning.

Beijing is amazing. There is so much history here. We met our guide Sim at 8:15 yesterday morning and boarded our “luxury touring bus”. It was huge considering there are only nine of us in our party. But it was fun! We first went to the center of Beijing. We saw Tianneman (sp?) square and the Mao mausoleum. We then went through to the Imperial City and the Forbidden City.


This place is expansive and it was so HOT. My favorite part of the whole thing was towards the end, when we were able to see some of the emperor's living quarters. After that we boarded the bus and headed towards a jade factory. It was interesting, but the salesmen were aggressive and the prices seemed high. Then we went to a Friendship Store for lunch and more shopping. We bought a few things, but not much. Lunch was good. The sweet and sour fish (complete with head and tail) was the topic of conversation. From there we went to the Great Wall. It was quite a drive up into the mountains. The mountains were beautiful, but the atmosphere was still very thick with fog. It's hard to describe the Great Wall. It is amazing. We were able to hike for about two hours. It is steep and the surface is varied and uneven, so you have to really watch your step. There are peddlers all along the wall and they get right in your face. Slady and I didn't go as far as the others. On the way down, Bman, S, and Ali decided to just run past them at breakneck speed. I guess it was hilarious. They started running after them shouting for them to wait.





We arrived back at the hotel at 6:30pm and Sim had arranged for us to go to the Chinese Acrobat Show at 7:00. We hurried and changed out of our sweaty dirty clothes and jumped into a cab. The acrobat show is wonderful. Well worth the price of the ticket. It was nice to sit and be entertained and it is mind boggling what they can do!

It's time to head to the airport. We are not sure when we will get to meet Lucie. Originally they told us Wednesday the 27^th, but now they are telling us tomorrow the 28^th. Who knows? I am still holding out for today. We shall see. I will post as soon as we can. The airlines here are very unpredictable. I guess it is the norm for your flight to be canceled. So, it's very hard to predict what your day will be like. We are supposed to leave at 10:15 this morning which should put us in Guangzhou at about 1:00. Stay tuned!

Our travel group with Sim at the Beijing airport