Beijing - Great Wall and Olympic Village
After a light "night" of sleeping, because our bodies thought it was 9:00am like in Florida, Laura and I headed downstairs and had a nice breakfast with some of the other families. We finally tried some steamed eggs, which is what Theo is eating now. We both agreed that the sooner we can get him on an American diet, the better...not very good according to our taste.
After a couple cups of coffee the majority of the group rallied out to the bus that would take us around Beijing for the day. It was early when we left and the city air was a little hazy. Air quality in China, especially larger cities (i.e. Beijing) is not the greatest due to mountains blocking the winds that would typically clear out some of the pollution. Think Los Angeles.
Our first stop was a Cloisonne factory. Laura and I had never heard of Cloisonne, but we soon found out that it is very nice brass metalwork and slightly above our budget. We watched as skilled artists formed a piece, lined it with brass strips and ultimately colored in the areas with designated colors. Some of the pieces cost roughly $3-5,000. It was strange to see that this little factory had such a large showroom and it seemed to be solely intended for our group for that hour. We were probably not the best group to pitch multi-thousand dollar pieces of art/vases to, considering we have all raised funding for our adoptions...
Next on to the Great Wall. We visited a section in the North of Beijing. It was not what Laura and I expected. Definitely amazing in scale, the Great Wall is over 3,000 miles long. According to our guide much of it is in ruins today, but not the section we visited. the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty, it provided an outer layer of protection to Beijing (capital city of the North).
At the Great Wall - section in North West Beijing (before the climb)
Top of the wall section we scaled with some members of our group
After the climb
After my Auburn comment yesterday, Laura had to get in a "Go Frogs!"
After the climb, Laura talking with our guide Tom
During the climb, we could definitely taste, let me say that again... TASTE the smog from the city. It did not make climbing the wall as fun as we thought, but what an experience. Who would have ever thought we would be able to explore some of Theo's heritage while in his home country. After the wall and an amazing lunch at a jade carving factory, we arrived at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Village. We walked around the "Bird's Nest" and "Bubble" where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. There were also signs and billboards supporting Beijing's bid for 2022 Winter Olympics. Our guide said that if Beijing won this bid, they would be the first city/opening ceremony venue to host both the summer and winter games.
Media Radio Tower with Olympic Rings
Bird's Nest - Opening Ceremony/Track and Field Venue
The Bubble - Michael Phelps 8 Gold Medals
A little Starbucks for some needed energy
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