The Great Wall

So today was our last full day in Beijing. We started the day with an International Church Service, which was very cool! You had to show ID to prove you were not a Chinese national to get into the service. I find that interesting. But will ellaborate more on that when I'm not in China!

We had a great lunch! Lots of Chinese food again, but most of it very yummy. I'm trying new things, some good, some not so much. The buffet style meals here are different than that in the US. We all sit at a large round table & big bowls of food are placed on a large lazy suzan in the middle of the table.bIt's more like family style dinning just with lots to chose from.

We went to the Jade Factory. I guess that jade is more precious than diamonds to the Chinese people. They have a long history of jade, pearls and silk being related to the royal family. The factory was pretty neat, mostly a jewelry store though! I have gotten some great gifts for family members at the pearl & jade factory, so I'm happy with that.

Our sight seeing today was the Great Wall, and let me just say, it is GREAT, as in BIG!!! Oh my! So amazing to see it in person! Scott and I hiked part of it, I guess it's some 4,500 miles long so we gave up on hiking the whole thing. (I bet Dave Chapman would have hiked the whole thing with me!!) OK, maybe not the whole thing. All my personal training clients out there will be happy to know that I struggleg climbing that thing. However, I didn't struggle as much as Scott.... just sayin'!

Dinner was interesting. Again the big family style dinning with large bowls of food in the middle of the table. However, they must have thought we were ready to get adventurous with our food, not sure why they thought that, but they brought our fish.... with the head and tail still attached!!! uggg!!!

We topped the evening off with a Chinese Acrobat Show. It was amazing!! They were so talented! I love watching that stuff.

So it's 10:30 on Sunday night as I'm typing this. We have to be up at 4:30am to catch our flight to Nanchang! Sooooo excited! Tomorrow is the day I get Elise! So, the next blog will be the famous "Gotcha day video!! Can't wait to show her to everyone!

So, here are a few pictures of the day......