Great Wall. Great Food. Great Show!

Hello, Faithful Blog Followers! Or shall I say "Ni Hao!" I apologize for the lack of coherent communication thus far from China. I actually haven't felt as bad as expected, jet lag-wise, but George, our guide, has kept us running so much that by the time we get back to the hotel at night I can barely see straight!  So, it's currently 5:12 a.m. Here, and after lying awake for nearly an hour, I decided to pull out Mr. iPod and try to catch you all up. If the connection cooperates, I will try to insert more pictures too in a couple hours. So, let's backtrack two days, which is actually a day and a half ago in the US... or a week ago... or three months from now... still not sure about the time difference. As I attempted to explain in the last post, we went on the houtong tour via pedicab, and visited a family home. It was interesting to hear the woman tell about her house and her family we were allowed to take a lot of pictures and I enjoyed seeing a little bit of normal, daily life. Next up was the silk factory. This was really interesting. They walked us through the silk making process step by step, which I also found fascinating. We learned about the silk worms, and the whole thing was really hands-on. Then we went straight into the shop, and I have to laugh a little at how "attentive" the shop workers are. If you so much as look at one particular item for more than .02 seconds, they're asking if you'd like it wrapped up to take home! It's reminiscent of the mosquitoes who try to sell you junk on the street, but at least you know these people are legit. They were very helpful though, as I figured out what we needed and for whom. Definitely higher priced stuff than on the street market, but also guaranteed quality. So, I guess it's ok. Josh just keeps saying "well, how often are you in China?" After the silk market, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch. George had pre-ordered our food. So, the minute we sat down, it started coming. Tons of food, but only one shot glass-sized drink. Refills were not so cheap! So, most of us opted to remain a little thirsty, but the food was good. I felt like this place wasn't all that different than what we'd eat at a Chinese restaurant back home, Which was actually a little disappointing, but it was tasty. After lunch, it was on to Tiananmen Square. It was big, yes. There were lots of soldiers, yes. It was painfully windy. But it was interesting to see, and also interesting to hear George's take on the political side of things, or at least the version he gave us in public. Any questions people tried asking him about whether he knew what had really happened there, he answered by suggesting that they wait to discuss it until we were back on the bus. We didn't spend too much time there. I mean, once you've looked at it's hugeness, there's not so much to do other than get blown around like a kite on this day. So, we continued on to the Forbidden City. If you don't know anything about it, Google it. It was the imperial palace for a few emperors it is insanely huge! Really interesting! We went through gate and courtyard after gate an courtyard which led to throne room after throne room. They all looked pretty much the same. People in the group were losing interest because of the wind. So, we sort if skipped he second half, which was more of where the people actually lived day-to-day. I really would've liked to explore that area more. I wished we had been able to wander the gardens and see the living quarters and the little exhibits, but it was getting late in the day and we were all frozen and pooped (nice mental picture, huh?). So, back on the bus, back to the hotel, and back to a really gross dinner at Subway in the mall connected to our hotel. KFC the first night wasn't bad. Subway was. I will not expound. The next day, yesterday, Saturday, while you were all sleeping your Friday night away, we had another jam packed day. We started off again with an impressive breakfast here at the hotel. They knock the socks off coffee and cold Danish. They even outdo the omelet man a Embassy Suites! French toast, hash browns, bacon, fried noodles, dumplings, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (which I want to bring with me by the gallon, it's so good), yummy "mint" yogurt (which I had the first morning, but was disappointed not to find yesterday... Fingers crossed for this morning!). We stocked up on calories for the day, and we needed them! They're not kidding about that Wall! So, the first stop of the day was the Jade Factory. It's definitely a cultural thing, but historically, had is to the Chinese what diamonds are to us, only add in the fact that apparently any health issue you may have can be remedied by wearing jade... Like the dad on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with the Windex. So jade is super precious here. It was fascinating to see the artisans carve the jade. Their work is so intricate! They carve these "happy family balls" which are a ball with 12 holes in the outside, covered in ornate designs of dragons and phoenixes. Inside the ball is another smaller 12-holed ball, and inside that one is another, and depending on how large the outermost one is, sometimes there are more inside. And the amazing thing is that they carve it from one solid piece of jade. Apparently it's some family secret that is passed from generation to generation. But the ball represents the parents, and inside that, the children, and inside that, the grandchildren, and so on. Very cool! Josh bought a small one with three layers, and I got a teeny tiny one as a pendant. After the jade factory, it was on to the Great Wall. I was pretty excited to see it, and had been warned that the climb was pretty challenging, but I figured I go up and down the stairs at home about a thousand times a day; I'll be alright, right? Those of you who have been there may now commence laughing at me. It was NOTHING like regular steps. A good portion of them were about as tall as my leg from the foot up to just under the kneecap, and. Straight up. Vertical. No gentle sloping wall to walk along like you see in the pictures, not where we were. Just a straight climb up the mountain and back down. Josh set off with gusto, once again adopting the "how often are you in China?" motto, and attempted to get me to join in his determination to get to the top. I, however, thought I was going to die. Right there. On the wall. By the time we got to the first guard tower, which was fairly quickly, compared to the rest of the group because of Josh's goal to reach the top before time was up, I thought I was seriously going to pass out and vomit. I mean, admittedly I am aware of the fact that I am not a professional mountain climber, but I was panting and wheezing and the words "altitude sickness" entered my mind repeatedly as my head throbbed and my ear hurt. I just couldn't catch my breath! So, I made it very clear that I was done with my climb and told Josh to continue without me. He did make it all the way to the top of our section. I, meanwhile, must have stood there for at least 45 minutes trying to regain composure and manage to cling to the rail for dear life as I made my way back down the perilous steps to the bottom. I didn't feel quite so bad though as I stood there and watched the people come up to the spot where I stood all that time, because nearly everyone, even people who were in far better physical shape than I, were panting ridiculously as well. So, I wasn't alone. In the end, the views were spectacular. Josh got some cool shots from the top, and I can say I survived it. Whenever we do come back, when the kids are older (much older if they're going to have any part of that wall!) I think we will find a section that has more up top to explore, like Samantha Brown of Travel Channel fame visited, and not just a straight shot up. The wall was an experience. I am glad to say I've been, but my legs are still not so glad. After the wall, we went to lunch at a restaurant located upstairs from a cloisonné factory. Don't know what that is? Google it too. Lunch was good. It seemed a little different this time from what we'd get back home, which was what I was interested in. It was really yummy! (sidenote: we are currently on the plane from Beijing to Zhengzhou and it really smells like someone is smoking on the plane. Lovely.). Now back to lunch: we had some really good dumplings, sweet & sour meatballs, thin sliced pork with leeks that looked more like noodles than meat, but was really good, a whole fish - head, eyeballs and all - and a bunch of other dishes. It was just what we needed after our morning. After lunch we shopped for a short while in the cloisonné shop. I got a couple small Christmas ornaments (really does not feel like Christmas is in just a few days at the moment). There were some funny ornaments I wanted to take pictures of, but that sales lady was on me like... well... a mosquito! Obviously Christmas ornaments aren't traditionally in high demand here. So, it's mostly catering to tourists, but some had nothing to do with China or Christmas. One said "Houston, Texas" and another said "Six Flags Discovery Island." Funny stuff! We drove back to the downtown area next and got off the bus for a short look at the 2008 Olympic area. We saw the Bird's Nest (which still reminds me more of a bedpan than a bird's nest) and the Water Cube (which I think is a really cool building). The whole time we were swarmed by mosquitoes. Today they were trying to sell us kites. It's actually kind of humorous after you've turned down your 14th in a row within a 5-block radius. Why do they think that if I wouldn't buy kites from the first 13, I would buy from them? Or do hey genuinely think I haven't already been offered a kite? I don't know. Funny. By now, we were deliriously exhausted, but we still had one last stop for the day. We went to watch an acrobatics show. It was in a movie theater, and I had to get a picture of the Harry Potter poster in Chinese. If you wanted to buy popcorn, they handed you a bag of microwave popcorn. The seats were clearly not made for tall Americans, and poor Josh's knees were up his nose, but the show was great! I took several pictures, but haven't looked through them yet. Don't know if any will actually be more than a blur from all the tumbling and movement, but Josh videoed a lot. It was an excellently impressive show.  I think we all enjoyed it a lot! By the time we arrived back at the hotel, I didn't want to move... but we walked over to KFC for dinner (safer than Subway). Then it was time to pack up as we spent our last night in Beijing. This morning, we said goodbye to George and are currently about to land in Zhengzhou. Tomorrow is Gotcha Day. We are all super excited! To top off the excitement, on the way to the airport, we figured out that another family in our group is adopting an MBHOH baby! It is a lady who I spent a lot of time talking with before the show last night, and as I heard her story of their adoption journey, I felt so thankful for ours. They had a really rough journey, full of heartbreaking setbacks and disappointments, and they barely had any info at all on their little girl. I was so humbled and thankful for our journey, which by comparison, has been a walk in the park. This morning on the bus, she pulled out a picture of their daughter. I instantly thought I recognized her, but wanted the other MBHOH moms to confirm it, which Karen did as soon as she saw the picture. What a blessing to be able to share with this couple the knowledge that not only are there a tremendous amount of pictures of their little one floating around out there, a record of her early life they never imagined they'd have, but also that she has received far better care than they had hoped for. I am so thankful that I could be there when they found out! Show Hope, people! It really does impact real people and real families in incredible ways! ... And P.S. My legs are still KILLING ME from that Wall!!!