The Great Wall

I must start out by saying arriving at night followed by Ambien makes for a wonderful next day. We got up and worked out, well I did, not Jim and met our guide for the day. He was funny, asking me if I owned a gun. We stopped at one of the national jade shops and heard the tales of women getting jade when they get engaged and saw carving. The woman who was leading us around asked if we had a daughter and we mentioned that we would be meeting her soon. She looked shocked and said "but you look so young to adopt, how old are you?" When I told her she mentioned that she was younger but I had no wrinkles and such pretty white skin with no tan. I suppose the grass is always greener. If she was aiming to sell me some jade, well done.

We then took a back road to the Mutianyu section of the wall, as the highway was shut down for some government official. Note to self bring ginger on long car trips...when we stopped for lunch I was digging out all of the sliced ginger to combat motion sickness. When we arrived at the wall, we took an open cable car up....uh, somewhat scary....very high. We both admitted to have thoughts of the car plummeting to the ground....our guide was behind us yelling and waving. The time on the wall could only be described as spiritual, it was the first time in many months I have felt in the present. We took a long "toboggan" ride down, which was numerous.

We thought about going to market to shop but realized we did not need to add any weight to our bags and could shop in GZ. The concierge walked us to a tiny courtyard restaurant for hot and sour soup, dumplings, and big beers.

Today is packed with the Forbidden city, Tianamen Square, Temple of Heaven, and an acrobat show...I may go down in my Peking duck.
For some reason I thought China would be busier, crazier...
Both of us are shocked that we fly out for GZ tomorrow and meet Evelyn the following day, still does not seem possible.