Our First Day in China

After a three hour delay in Chicago, we safely arrived in Beijing on Thursday evening. Today was our first full day in the beautiful country of China. We met everyone in our travel group this morning and we are very fortunate to be traveling with such a wonderful and fun group of people!

It took about two hours by bus to get to the Great Wall, which allowed us to see a great deal of Beijing, including the grounds of the Olympic Stadium. The stadium, still under construction, is called "The Birds Nest" due to its shape. It will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Great Wall was breath-taking...literally! We haven't huffed and puffed that much in ages! There are parts of the wall that go straight up, but the view was worth every minute of the hike. Being two people who have also had the fortune of seeing the pyramids in Egypt, it was just as mind boggling to imagine what went into the construction of the Great Wall. It's no wonder that it is one of the seven wonders!!!

After leaving the Great Wall, we headed for the Cloisonne Factory and learned all about what goes into the making of these beautiful pieces of art. Much to Dave's dismay, I out-shopped everyone!

We ended our afternoon by taking a bicycle rickshaw tour of the Hutong district. We even got a tour of a family's home. Though it was very modest, the family was extremely proud of their home in the Hutong district which is being increasingly threatened by the construction of new apartment buildings.

We ended our day by going to a duck restaurant with two other couples from our group to try Peking duck. We were told that it was one of the four experiences we needed to have in Beijing. One of the guys in our group was convinced he would get avian flu if he went near the duck, but the rest of us were daring and it was delicious! We even got an official certification of the duck we devoured...not sure why. I guess if there's a duck recall, we'll know the other guy in our group was the smart one.

To see more pictures from our first day in China, you can click on the link at the top right entitled, "More China Pictures", then click on the "China Day 1" folder.

Two more days till we see our newest pumpkin! We can't wait!