Day 1: Great Wall/Bird's Nest

Tuesday was a long day of touring in Beijing.  We visited the Great Wall.  We went to a different section this time.  If you haven't seen it in person, it's difficult to get a real understanding of how steep the wall is.  It's now a wall like the side of your house.  It's more like a stone staircase built into the side of a mountain.  We climbed up and up and up.  I have to say that my fitness level is so much improved that while climbing was a tremendous effort, it didn't hurt like last time.  I have to thank my buddies at Ultimate Fitness for getting me in shape for this day. 

We ate lunch and shopped at a Jade Factory.  Micah picked out a special necklace with a jade koi.  Chinese tradition says that a person is drawn to a piece of jade by a undeniable force.  It was like this for Micah and the jade koi.  He knew it was his from the moment he saw it. 

We were then allowed to visit the Olympic Green where the 2008 Olympics were held.  We saw the Bird's Next Stadium, the Water Cube and other things we had only seen on TV.  Micah had fallen asleep on the bus and slept through much of this stop.  Thank goodness for the Ergo which allowed him to sleep and me to see everything. 

Our last stop was at the Acrobat Show.  Micah was enthralled by the different acts.  He said it was his favorite part of the day. 

We were so very tired and were thinking of a dinner of beef jerky and crackers in the room, but Micah insisted on a trip back to the jiao zi restaurant where we dined on the most wonderful dumpings (jiao zi).  I'm gonna miss that one when we move onto Zhengzhou today.