Saturday - Ming Tombs, Great wall

Today we are touring the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall and a little shopping at the friendship store. Jackie (guy) is our tour guide who picked us up at 7:30 am. There was a couple at the hotel with us that was also going and then two other couples from different hotels (one from Tokyo and the other from England). Just before we got to the second hotel Pete was able to see a Fire Station. For those of you who do not know Pete is a Fire Fighter/Paramedic.

The first stop - Ming Tombs. It only took about 45 minutes to get there. This place was pretty cool. We got a lot of information from Jackie about the tombs and the emperors of China. I wont get into all of the details but there were some funny stories about how one of he emperors lost his title after only two years because of a woman and a fight with another royal family member.

Next stop - Jade factory. Not really too much excitement for me here. I have been to one of these in the past and it is a short tour followed by a store to purchase what you saw. Kind of like Disney dropping you off a ride into a store. This one was very expensive compared to others.

Next stop - Lunch at the friendship store. This is basically the same as the jade factory. hey give you a sort tour of how they make vases and such and then drop you into a store followed by lunch. There are a lot of neat items that you can purchase. This store is not for the locals, only tourists. The prices have gone up quite a bit since the last time we were here. I would say they have tripled. The lunch is a tradition Chinese meal with some American style items such as french fries.

Next stop - The Great Wall. This was only about 30 minutes from the lunch place. Pete and I went as high as we could go in the time that Jackie alloted for us which was about 30 minutes up and 30 minutes back. There is a lot of pollution so the visibility was not that great. he wall was crazy. It would go from 4" high steps to just a sloped walkway at probably a 50+  degree angle. Pete got a lot of looks and stopped a lot for the tattoos. They all wanted to read his arm. He got a lot of laughs too because he has ma ma (mommy) in Chinese on the front of his arm. We think they were laughing because he didn't know what it says  but they didn't see the back side where he has ba ba (daddy). It was a really cool trip and a good opportunity to share with other people why we are over here and also talk about our adoptions.

The plans for tonight are small - eat, blog and sleep. I have been very lucky with the computer to be able to videoconference with the family at home over the Mac. The internet at this hotel is great. I am not counting on the same when we get to Zhengzhou (Jung - Joe). hopefully we will have a connection but if not thank you everyone for your prayers. They are definitely working as we have not hit a snag yet (knock on wood).

Bill

Update - We went down to dinner. We had the buffet in the hotel. It was good. I had duck, fish and chocolate cake for desert. Think I am going to crash now. More to follow tomorrow....