Yeah. We are finally here and all is well. We left Salt Lake at 2pm on the 20th and arrived in Beijing at 8pm on the 21st. The flights were not as bad as I had imagined. Packing lots of fun stuff for the girls to do in their backpacks helped tremendously along with all the in-flight movies and games.
Our hotel is called the Hulu and is located in one of the old Hutongs that was renovated and turned into a hotel.
On Wednesday, we got up and met our tour guide, Jasmine. Her husband picked us up from the airport. They are a very cute family and speak almost perfect English. We feel like royalty with our own tour guide and driver all day long. We went to the Jade factory first.
They showed us how the Jade is carved and taught us how to tell the difference in real jade and the fake stuff. One of the coolest pieces of Jade is a family ball. It starts as one ball and when they are done, it has 4 layers that move independently. On the outside is a carved dragon and phoenix. It symbolizes the unity of the family. Yes, we purchased one. It is a perfect piece to symbolize this journey.
Our second stop was the Great Wall. There are no words. It is magnificent. We rode the ski lifts up to the top and rode the toboggan ride back down. We sat on some stairs of the great wall for a while just trying to take it all in--not believing that we were actually sitting on the Great Wall of China. Surreal.
We ate at a restaurant next to the Great Wall, called Mr. Yang's and had BBQ fish.
Our last stop of the day was to see the Acrobat show. We were a few minutes late, and so they placed us in the VIP section (2nd row). The girls were mesmerized.
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