Great Wall and Summer Palace

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we were off to the Great Wall and Summer Palace. Our guide and driver met us just outside of the cafeteria and we were off. Our driver introduced himself as our "Crazy Driver" …and boy was he RIGHT!! Though I could tell he was a very skilled driver, so I honestly felt pretty safe in his hands. The drive through Ch*na is an adventure in an of itself…let me tell ya!! ;) We decided on the Mutianyu section of the GW for our tour. It was an excellent choice, and I honestly wish we had spent more time there. Upon entry, we climbed some stairs and then over to the ski lift that brought us to a higher point. We then hiked up and down several cases of stairwells to the different towers. Some were very, very steep and were more like climbing a ladder… something you would NOT want to do with small children. We climbed to several different towers, with many pauses to catch our breath, of course! It was so beautiful and surreal to be standing on the Great Wall… it is easy to see why it is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It was my favorite tour of our entire trip, by far! And the exercise felt so good. Dawson had a LOT of energy he needed to expel, so this was especially good for him! We had a wonderful guide named Pete, who works with New Day. We enjoyed his company the entire day. We had a chance to meet his family the day before at Elva's going-away party, and they were all so nice, too. Dawson really enjoyed Pete. He was so patient and kind and really took the time to go where ever Dawson wanted. He was truly a blessing! Since we went to the GW bright and early, we avoided most of the major crowds and the 'heat' of the day; though it did start to get really warm in the later morning. When we'd had enough hiking, we went back down to the point of the toboggans, and rode them the rest of the way down. I think I went the fastest of everyone. Dawson got behind someone slow, and had a hard time getting going again. But I waited longer in between people, so that I could go faster. It was SO fun. If you want to see some fun videos of the toboggan ride, just head on over to YouTube and do a search for "Great Wall Tobaggan Ride" and you will find SEVERAL videos …it was a blast!

After the GW, we were off to lunch. Our driver picked a small 'mom and pop' style café somewhere in Beijing. They ushered us to a small, private room in the back, and we all sat around this large round table with a ginormous lazy-suzan in the middle. There were many different dishes to choose from, and they were all very, very good. Our entire meal only totaled around $30 USD and it was a TON of food with plenty left over!

After lunch we headed over to Summer Palace. It is not a place I would recommend for a busy Saturday afternoon, as it was SO crowded. And I think we were some of the only 'westerners' around… which made US part of the tourist attraction. Shortly after we got there, Pete took our family photo in front of the lake. I must've seen about 20 other cameras quickly turn in our direction and take a quick picture. It was pretty funny. I am not one for large crowds, especially in the heat of the day, so we had Pete usher us to the gardens that are behind the main buildings. This place is so large, that you couldn’t possibly tour all of it in one day.  Breanna began feeling sick just before lunch, and by this point it had worsened, so she and I found a park bench in one of the quiet gardens and just sat and rested, listening to some soft flute music in the background.  Martin, Dawson and Pete went on to hike through more of the gardens and make their way to a higher look-out point where they could see over the lake. They were gone a good half-hour or more, and had a wonderful time.  Breanna still was not feeling well, and was beginning to get worse, so we decided to call it a day and head back. It was too bad, as we didn't get to enjoy hardly any of the Summer Palace and gardens. But it's no fun being sick in a public place, so we decided to be done. On our way out, we had to go back through the busy areas in the entry, where we quickly became a tourist attraction again. One lady was following us quite a ways with her video camera. It was clear she was trying to get Dawson on camera. I kind of blocked her view and tried to rush on, but she picked up her pace and ran ahead of me first chance she got, so I called Dawson's name and told him to just turn around and smile… it must've been exactly what she wanted, as she finally stopped taping and went away. It was strange being the minority in such a large country. A real eye-opening experience to say the least. After a while, you do get used to it, but it's still uncomfortable at times. Maybe it gives us a small glimpse of how our adopted children might feel back home. Anyway, our day of touring drew to an end with a stop off at McD's for Dawson. Both he and Breanna commented on how McDonald's never tasted so good! ;) Too funny!! We then headed back to NewDay where Pete helped us figure out the washer and dryer so that we could do some clothes before heading out to the airport in the morning. It was bittersweet packing to leave this wonderful place. We wish we could've had more time at NewDay, but felt so blessed to have had such an amazing experience with such wonderful people! Next stop…Fuzhou!!

(Pictures to follow in the next post!).