day 2 adventures

So I am a little behind on my blogs but that should be a good indication of how busy we are and how much fun we are having.  On Saturday, we drove 1.5 hours to the Great Wall. There is access to the wall in many places and some places it is not maintained at all and is deterioriated.  It is massive and over 30 ft high in some places.  The steps are very steep and my thighs were hurting shortly after the climb.  I only went a little ways up, but Joyce and the girls went about 30 minutes up to one first major landing.  It is hard coming down.  The views from the wall are awesome and you can see it along many highways and by airplane.  The mountains are mostly brown rock and not too much green yet. 

 

Beijing is enormous.  It is miles and miles square, taking hours to get from one end to the other.  The city is very big and sprawled out.  It takes at least one hour to get across "town".  I cannot tell if there is an uptown or downton.  There is housing mixed in everywhere and most of it is low income housing.  Beijing is surrounded by massive mountainsides.  Little towns pop up here and there. 

 

Today we also visited a Jade factory, the biggest one in Asia.  Our guide tells us it is the best price Jade anywhere.  We bought the girls all pendants with their chinese zodiac signs.  At least we know they are real jade.  Many markets pass off glass as jade to tourists.  We hope the girls have them for avery very long time based on what we spent!  We were able to watch the artists carve the jade.  They are not required to wear any protection, even with tiny pieces of stone flying everywhere.  The kids realy enjoyed the Jade factory.  The "store" is about the size of a grocery store. 

 

We also did the Summer Palace tour today.  Lots of buildings with artifacts and fancy roofing.  Maggie is paying attention and learning from our guide, Sunny.  Sunny has become good friends with the girls and told me that Maggie is very well behaved.  That is alot coming from a chinese person. They are very strict with thier kids.  Everyone stared at us at Summer Palace.  A bathroom attendant asked Joyce where the girls mothers were.  An elderly man talked to Maggie, asking her if she was Chinese.  She did pretty well understanding his toothless country slang.  We have seen many babies with "split pants" whose parents let them squat and pee wherever they want.  The Chinese just ignore it.  The bathrooms are filthy, I mean filthy, most everywhere but our hotel and maybe a nicer restaurant.  Most toilets are squat style.

 

We got dropped at the hotel about 6pm and were too tired to go to dinner so Joyce and I ventured into a local department/grocery store called Carrefore.  What an experience that was.  It was two very large floors, one like a walmart, and one a crazy crowded grocery store with everything you can think of.  Every part of every animal is sold here. The butcher carves sides of meat in front of you, and you pick what you want. There is alot of pushing and shoving.  It is a natural occurrance.  We were looking for precooked foods and snacks to eat in the hotel.  We picked up stuff like cheeses, yogurts, breads, candies, and sausages.  We also got ice cream and wine. We bought way too much so we are still munching on it two days later.   We are a spectacle every where we go.  People also seemed particularly interested in exactly what we were buying.  There are "helpers" in each isle.  Most of the helpers english wasnt very good so we had to wing it. 

 

Maggie is being shy about writing, I know she just doesnt enjoy it.  She is also shy about speaking Chinese to nationals but Sunny is speaking to her often.  The girls all hold hands with Sunny all day, she is a treasure.Joyce says she is losing weight with all the walking. I feel like I am getting bigger and bigger, especially around these people who are typically on the petite side.