The Great (?) Wall

So, today was our big day for Beijing sightseeing. This made Jay giddy as he was really looking forward to this and had been very disappointed when we could not come to Beijing on our way into China and me very cranky as we did not get in last night until midnight and I (unlike others!) did not sleep on the plane because I was holding a squirming baby. For those of you who know us, this was a deadly combination :)

We headed up to the northern part of the city to see the Great Wall. We had seen an older, more remote section as we drove up to Ben's orphanage last week but this was a famous section near a passage built by an emperor to visit his mommy in Mongolia (how sweet!). I was under the impression that we were just visiting the wall but, much to my disappointment, we were meant to be CLIMBING the wall. I traditionally don't like to climb anything but Jay, on the other hand, got all geared up to try it out. We stopped by the etching of the words of Chairman Mao that say if you want to be a hero then you have to climb the wall and then we started on our quest to become heroes. It was quite cold so Ben was all wrapped up in his traveling backpack and was quite content to be carried up the wall. I looked everywhere for a horse, mule, donkey, or camel but there was none to be found so I headed upwards under my own power. If you look at the pictures you will see that this climb is NO JOKE and you are literally climbing almost vertically.


I made it to the 3rd platform (still really high!) before I thought that death was imminent and I needed to stop. I did, however, make it past the stand where you can buy your official hero card so that makes me, you guessed it, a hero!!! Jay left me with our guide and he headed off with Ben to climb higher and higher. About an hour went by and our guide started getting nervous. It wasn't long after that we saw Jay coming back down. When he explained to our guide what he had seen she was VERY impressed. It turns out that although she brings tourists there every week, Jay had climbed higher and farther than anyone she had ever seen! But, the real hero at the wall was Ben who never uttered a peep during the whole climb and managed to stay "clean" while he and daddy were climbing an hour away and mommy was at the third platform with all of the diapers!

After we left the wall we drove past the new Olympic village complete with the new stadium, The Bird's Nest. You can see it over our shoulder in the picture below. It really is quite an amazing building. We also saw the Olympic countdown clock. They had better get cracking as time is quickly ticking away!



This afternoon we went on a Hutong Tour by bicycle. A Hutong is a preserved housing "development" (from about 800 years ago!) in which people still live and do business. We were really tired but the ride on the bicycle was relaxing and we learned some interesting cultural things.

Tonight, to celebrate our LAST NIGHT (I can't believe it!) in China, we went out for my favorite food of all time: Peking Duck. Our guide sent us to the most awesome restaurant and it was GREAT! I could totally eat that everyday if it wasn't so very bad for you :) Ben made a giant mess with his food and loved every minute of it! It was such a nice way to celebrate everything we have been through over the last 2 weeks.

Tomorrow we are off to do a little more sightseeing and then we will be flying home. I am so sad to leave China yet I am really excited to get Ben home and to see Jack and Annie. Hopefully we will all be rested and ready to go in the morning... yeah right!