Beijing Day 1: Climbing, riding, and more climbing...

The object of today was to stay awake!  And our guide, Mel, did her best to fill our day with enough activity that sleep was next to impossible. 

After a delicious breakfast in the hotel, we headed out bright and early for the Great Wall.  We arrived only to discover that we were to have our first experience with a squatty potty.  The Sweet One was so enamoured with the experience that she insisted we have a photo to commemorate our success.  The Fairy Godmother exerienced a bit of a mishap, but was relieved that her shoes were spared.  Dr. Jiggles and Ziggity have both proclaimed that they will never use one.  Wimps.

After all "business" was attended to, we headed out for our treck up the Great Wall.  Of course, since Samuel couldn't join us for this part of the trip we made a "Flat Samuel" to accompany the Fairy Godmother's Little Yoda travelling companion.  It's not the same as really being there, but I hope he can look at these photos one day and know that we were thinking of him!  

The boys and Sticks climbed all the way to that tower on the far upper right of the photo! I'm proud to say that my man is in better shape today than he was almost 7 years ago when we were last here.  It was 95 degrees and HUMID, so we were drenched and dehydreated by the time we got back down to the bottom. 

One other funny thing.  Within a minute of starting our climb, Joshua was virtually assaulted by a young family wanting their son to get a photo with him. 

It happened again right after this photo was taken.



We're pretty sure the draw was the blonde hair.  Dr. Jiggles handled his newfound celebrity well.  He was even a good sport when one mom was trying to push a very resistant little guy to stand next to him. 

Back to the finish.  We (and our now-noddle-legs) proudly posed for our victory photo before heading back to the van driven by our fantastic driver, Mr. Li, whom we call Li Shifu (Master Li).

Our next stop was lunch, which happened to be in the same building as the Jade factory.  We got a short tour through the factory and watched an amazing master carver working on the coolest sculpture called a "Happy Family Ball."  It is multiple Jade spheres inside of each other (all carved from the same original piece of jade)symbloizing multiple generations with a dragon and a phoenix carved into the outer ball symbolizing a good marriage, and 12 holes carved in it symbolizing the months of the year.  I'm not doing it justice, so just have a look. It's not something typical of our family decor, but the symbolism was so cool and the fact that we watched someone making one was really cool, so we make that our purchase of the day. 

After lunch we drove over to a Hutong neighorhood.  This is "Old China" preserved right in the middle of modern Beijing.  We got a rickshaw tour through the neighborhood and even got to visit the home of one resident. 

A family member in the home had a business painting the inside of small glass jars and they allowed the Sweet One to try her hand at the art.  She was pretty proud of herself.  

(Note that you can see the reflection of Dr. Jiggles taking a photo of a light fixture he found particularly facsincating.  All three kids recieved cameras as a travel gift and Dr. J has surprised me with his artistic eye and his enthusiasm for telling a story through pictures.)

Within the Hutong neighborhood was a drum tower where we got to watch a really cool drum show.  Unfortunately, getting up to the top of the tower involved another 68 really large and steep steps.  Worth the effort though!

We thought we were done by that time, and looked forward to a ride back in an air conditioned van.  Instead, we were ushered into a bell tower that housed a tea house in the bottom level.  We were apparently scheduled for a ceremonial tea tasting.  I'm not much of a tea drinker, but the demonstration was fascinating and the tea-tasting spectacular.  I now know that the different kinds of tea have remarkable healing qualities and that I should be drinking a lot more of it!  ;)

 

We are now back at the hotel and debating if we actually want to leave for dinner or just sack out here and live on cheese and crackers.  Decisions, decisions...