Second and Final day in Beijing – The GREAT WALL

After eating breakfast we checked out of the hotel and started our way heading to the Mutia nyu section of the Great Wall a couple hours outside of Beijing city. We drove thru the Olympic Village and saw the Birds Nest, Watercube, and the Pangu 7 Star Hotel. After more driving we stopped at a Jade Factory and learned about the three types of Jade: 1. Jadite the hardest and most expensive, 2. Agate is second in quality, 3. Shu Jade has solid color. Green and Lavender are the most expensive colors. To choose quality: darker is better, more translucency and best coloring.

From there it was on to the Great Wall. The Mutia nyu section is so far up the mountain you take a ski lift to the top and can either take the ski lift back down or take the Toboggan Run down. Yoshi was telling us he has a friend that will drive out buy one entrance ticket and three toboggan tickets and spends all his time going down the toboggan. The Great Wall was as breathtaking and majestic as the last time. It was a wonderful experience to have three of our grandparents with us to enjoy it. It was an experience of a life time. As the wall was being built the workers that would die would be buried along the way and Yoshi called it the longest cemetery in the world, what a sobering thought as you are walking along the top. The toboggan ride down was too fun and it was funny to hear the Chinese men along the way down shout “slow down” in Chinglish. We stopped for dinner just down the road. Brian and Ann are so easy going and it is fun for us to all order something than we all pass it around so we can all taste everything. Yoshi took us to the airport for our 5:10 pm flight to Changsha… wonder if we’ll pick up Penelope tonight or tomorrow.

We arrived at 7:30 pm and Vicky (Sovanseen) picked us up and told us it was 30 minutes to the hotel Dolton which is VERY nice. She mentioned that there are 300 orphanages in the Hunan province, which is an average number per province. That's a lot of children needing homes! It’s hard to understand why it took so long to get Violet and why the Chinese Program is so slow when there are so many children still in need of families. Our tentative schedule is to pick up Penelope tomorrow at 3 pm, Tues at 9:30 am go in and finalize the paperwork after the "24 hour honeymoon period”, tour and possibly go to the orphanage Wednesday and Thursday. We will then either fly or take the train to Guangzhou Friday evening. Exciting day tomorrow, miss you all. xoxo