Great Wall, Jade Factory, Olympic Park, & Acrobatics Show

Another wonderful day today! We began our day at the Great Wall. It was a beautiful site, and is no doubt a wonder of the world. The wall is very uneven so climbing it can be, umm, challenging in places. One step may be 3 feet high while the next may be 1 foot. No exaggeration. But, my rockstar hubby (and M's!) climbed all the way to the top tower of the section we visited and the kids and I went pretty high up, maybe 1/8 a mile less than the mister.

Until next time Great Wall!

 

Our next stop was the Jade Factory. We learned about jade, shopped of course, then ate lunch. The more cuts in the jade, the more expensive it is. (You're welcome.) We picked up a few items for Lia Grace for her future "forever family" days as well as a gift for our older daughter and my mom. Lia Grace was born in the year of the dragon so one of the gifts we bought was a little jade dragon.

 VERY expensive piece of jade!!!

 

 One of the artisans creating something fabulous from the jade...

 

Our yummy lunch.

 Anyone that knows me knows that I hate seafood so when this put down in front of me I *almost* threw a fit. (winks) You can see how much food was brought out and meals are almost always served family style in Chin@.

 

After we left the Jade Factory we drove through Olympic Village. This was the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.  



 

We saw some of the most fascinating architecture~

 "Water Cube"

 "Bird's Nest"

 

 

In the evening we went to the acrobatics show (similar to Cirque du Soleil here). It was pretty intense at the end. 8 men drove their motorcycles simultaneously in a large glass ball! Our hearts skipped many beats throughout that portion! But, it was a great show and we all enjoyed it.

 

 (Photographs weren't allowed inside)

 

Here are a few pics of the street scene in and around Beij!ng.

 

What a HUGE city Beij!ng is. It is a mix of old and new. There are areas that feel very "Western" yet there are other areas that are very, very old, like the Hutong.  We enjoyed our 2 days of touring and feel like we were able to see and do ALOT!

 

 

Next stop....HENAN!!!!! Wooooooohoooo! 

 

 

 

The Worst....

Ok, so I am the worst blogger ever. But, before you start throwing things at me, let me explain.

On the morning we left for the Great Wall, Jade Factory, etc., I left my laptop (where the VPN's were loaded) up so I could quickly add the pictures I promised from the previous day. When I returned that night, poof! the VPN's were not there. My sweet husband tried to reload Express and could not. So, I decided to try to blog from my phone. Ummm, I quickly found out that that wasn't going to happen either. It truly was a series of unfortunate events and I am sorry. I hate that I now have the task of trying to go back and blog 16 more days from our trip, and I can only catch up while the lil empress is napping. Bear with me....