Completing our Family with KaiLi Waldeck: The Great Wall (Sat 1/9)

MeiLin was up early at 4:30am. She played 'quietly' on the floor, so Brandon and I rested, more than slept, for the next two long hours...

First up we stopped to look at the Bird's Nest and some of the other buildings from the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Bird's Nest from the 2008 Olympic Games.

MeiLin being silly in the car; she was a ninja!

Next, we visited the National Stone Place otherwise known as the Jade factory. It was amazing! There are no trade schools on how to carve it. The knowledge is only passed down within the family from father to son through the generations. There is actually a shortage of jade artisans, since many are not following in their fathers footsteps. Jade comes in many colors: green, white, red, yellow, purple, and black. We got each of the girls a pendant in their zodiac sign (rabbit and snake), a bracelet, and then a jade ball with seven individual balls inside all carved out of one piece of jade. It is beautiful!

A jade ship

Then we headed to The Great Wall! Just like yesterday, it was cold and windy and there was still snow on the ground. The mountains are majestic and are such a beautiful background to the stone of the wall. The pictures just don't do it justice. Up the wall we went. Are you kidding? Talk about a steep cardio workout. I wore my boots instead of my shoes, since I figured they would be warmer for being out in the teens again today. Well, I had two misccalculations. #1 - You get burning hot when hiking up the wall. I shed my scarf, hat and gloves and would have shed my coat if I didn't have to carry it! #2 - Hiking up the wall is no joke. But hiking up in high-heeled boots? FAIL! I have a feeling it will be tough to walk the next few days... I wasn't even going to go up, but then Brandon was like, "When are we ever coming back?". And he was right, but it was farther up than it looks and crazy steep! We all just went up to the first tower. I ran into a couple who went up 6 towers. She told me the view was the same as the 1st tower...glad to know! Brandon had to carry MeiLin down, which made me nervous, but we all made it safe and sound.

About to walk up The Great Wall!

We hiked up to the first tower on the hill...wowzers! (Not the one in the foreground but the first one in the background.)

A selfie on the top!

View from the top

Another angle of the tower we hiked up

My favorite picture of the Great Wall!

The ride home was around 1 1/2 hours and I took a quick nap. We showered and packed our bags. Beijing proved to be different than Shanghai. While in Shanghai, all of the buildings were kept at a sweltering 85 degrees. We only brought warm clothes for the trip and burned up any time we went inside. Since we were afraid the money belts would show, we would leave our jackets on and literally sweated. Well not so in Beijing! We were smart this time and packed lots of layers. All of the buildings in Beijing are freezing! Inside would be in the 50's. It was warmer than outside but during meals, while shopping, and in the theatres, everyone wore their hats and gloves. Definitely not my cup of tea! Burr...cold!

That evening Rocky took us to an authentic Chinese dinner for dumplings. Next up was the King Fu show at 7:30. MeiLin fell asleep on the way there and dozed in and out during the show. It told the story of a young boy who rose to become the King Fu master. And of course they had really cool karate scenes. In hindsight, we should have declined the show. We didn't get back to the hotel until after 9pm and had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning to head to Nanchang for KaiLi's Gotcha Day! Praying for safe travels and that we aren't completely exhausted for our big day!