A True Chinese Hero

Last night our agenda called for dinner on our own.  Most of our travel group decided to go to a local noodle restaurant located near our hotel.  We had ordered an assortment of entrees and shared them.  It was all fabulous, but I really enjoyed the stress noodles the best.  I had heard a lot about them but had never had the opportunity to try them. 

Next we headed further down the street to an outdoor market.  It is actually the most famous outdoor night market in Beijing and is often the one features on news/food programs ... especially those focusing on "odd foods."  As we walked down the market, the vendors would try to get us to buy their food.  We did have one member of our group try the scorpion.  I was thinking about it (when else would I have the chance to try scorpion?) but I was too worried about getting sick and being miserable the rest of the trip.

One of the vendors would flex his muscles and explain that if we ate a "certain part of the sheep's anatomy" we would gain much strength.  Other vendors would just shout out the foods like scorpion, snake, spider...and then there was the one who would just yell penis, penis, penis!  We were told many of the Chinese locals do not eat there, it is mainly for tourists who come from all over and want to try the unique items they have to offer.

Afterwards, we went to the mall...it was quite large and we didn't go through much of it.  We did find a Watsons and they had a very small travel flatiron, only one left!   So I was excited and bought it...and some M&Ms for Jeff.  I am thankful to not have crazy hair...and to be able to stop blogging about it.  ;-)

We then turned in for the night.  The next morning we will woke up and headed to breakfast and then headed to the Great Wall!  It was absolutely breathtaking and photos would never correctly portray the size of it. 

[Side note:  When writing my blog last night, at this point I started writing nonsense words and was dozing off.  I decided it was some time for some shuteye.  Of course, now it is 2:00 a.m. in the morning and I am WIDE awake.  Seem to be having trouble kicking this jet lag.  So, I guess I will try and finish this post ...while watching Pitch Perfect on one of the only English channels here in the hotel room.]

So...I was talking about the Great Wall.  We felt it was absolutely awe-inspiriong!  To try and imagine how may people lost their lives building the wall.  Then to stand on the wall and think about how much history took place there so long ago. 

Our group all obtained different distances on the wall.  I made it MUCH further than I thought I would upon first seeing the wall.  But Jeff and a couple others forged on further.  I had been doing fine climbing it...but what really killed me was how uneven the steps were...and the fact that many of then came up above my knee.  I don't know that I was able to capture the different height of the steps...I do know there are no photos of me when I had to crawl up a couple of them on my hands and knees because I couldn't walk up them..and there are no photos of how I had to climb down the wall practically sideways.  LOL   I am sure it was quite the scene to see!

When Jeff and I were at the top, we bought a lock and attached it to a chain that runs along the wall.  Couples in China believe that the locks will bring their relationship the strength and stability of the Great Wall.

Beyond all that, I think I was most moved by all of the different walks of life we saw on the wall.  So many different people from all corners of the world.  Many times people would have to stop and sit on the stairs to take a break before moving on.  One very elderly man was resting as I was climbing up and he handed out his hand to help me up the wall.  I was so touched by that.  Kind of like an adventure we were all on together.  (Of course, I am a complete sap and tend to get teary eyed over moments like that!)

After the Great Wall we headed to lunch.  The restaurant was named Golden Palace which made us smile as that is the name of a restaurant Izzy likes to go to back home.  The restaurant is attached to a cloisonne factory.  It was a short tour, but was neat to see how they make the vases, etc.

There was of course a massive gift shop we went to after lunch attached to the factory.  (Just sayin' Jeff and I may or may not need an extra suitcase already!) 

 

 

The next stop was the Olympic Park. While the Birds Nest and the Water Cube were really great to see...and I think a definite required stop when in Beijing,...it was a bit sad to see how dirty and unkempt it was. Such amazing structures whose only purpose now is a tourist attraction and a place for vendors to sell their items.

We had some extra time and our group decided against a break back at the hotel and instead add to the days agenda a stop at a traditional tea house. Who know there was so much to learn about making tea? We were shown the art of maiking tea, serving tea nad also given a variety to taste.

The last stop of the day was a Chinese acrobats show.  In line with the rest of the events of the day ... it was great.  I had seen a performance when a troupe was traveling through Kansas City a few years ago...but here the group had a much larger production and they definitely did more daring performances without the use of wires or saftey nets.

By the time we headed back to the hotel. it seemed like it was 10:30 p.m. but it was only about 6:30 p.m. 

We travel to Henan on Sunday and we wanted to get a good night's sleep and start figuring out how we were going to pack our bags without new purchases!

We opted to get a quick dinner instead of going out to another restaurant and so we headed down the street to ... McDonalds.  Not quite like ours, but did the trick.

So, there you have it.  We are both officially Chinese Heroes (the name given to those who have climbed the wall), we have had an amazing education today in Chinese culture and history...and in a few hours we will hop on a plane to Henan.

This is the point in our trip where we leave the tourist side behind and move on to the purpose of our trip ... Teagan!

***Last note...I have gotten VERY behind on the blog due to connection difficulties.  It is currently Sunday night and I am just now posting from a couple days ago.  Today we left Beijing in the morning and took our flight to Henan.  It was quite bumpy...Jeff mentioned the pilot may need a few more hours under his belt.  We have met our new guides, made a trip to Wal-mart, had dinner, found out Jeff's luggage was lost....later to be found (whew) and are now in our room getting settled. Where we have just realized we only have one outlet to use for all of our electronic gadgets that need to be charged.  (AACCK!).  So, I may not get around to a post for today...just just received the Cliff's Notes version.

I am getting ready to pack up a diaper bag to Teagan.  We will leave the hotel to meet her tomorrow around 9:30 a.m. and may be there a long time as all the babies are arriving separately from four different orphanages.   Next time I post...we will have a sweet little girl in our arms!