July 1 - The Great(est) Wall

The (really) part pertains to the fact that I can't figure out how to over-ride the automatic blog dates installed by this software. What I mean is that I'll be describing Thursday, July 1 - even though I'm writing (I think!) on Friday, July 2...during a bout of insomnia.

So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.

We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).


So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.
We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).

Then on to the great wall...which really can't be put into words. Suffice it to say that it clearly has earned it's spot on the greatest wonders of the world list. We had an hour and a half to explore the mu tian yu segment (accessible only by cable car)...and the mist lifted in this awesome way to reveal its splendor. We decided to head left and try to make it as far as we could go. We were proud to be the first from our travel group (and 2 of only 4 people) who made it as far as the gate that closed off the rest of the section - an enormous number of steps up...and I'll just now let the pictures speak for themselves. (actually posting a picture is taking upwards of 10 minutes...so I'm whittling this down to words for now).