Day 1: being caught in a thunderstorm on the Great Wall of China- Priceless

“I have climbed the Great Wall of China”
We went to the great wall today, it was amazing, so majestic, and not what I expected! It was like climbing straight up a mountain with steps built in so you don't need a pick axe and a rope- but they would have helped! I had always pictured the Great Wall as long stretches of wall, this part was nothing but very steep steps, most of them were at least a foot high. Brent and I went up, We had climbed the first part and almost made it to the first tower, and we were just dying and panting. Two old ladies from China were sitting at the top and were just laughing at us, I was amazed, they climbed even higher after that as well. I'll be nice and just say that Brent sat down and rested after a bit and I went on without him. :-) I passed 2 lookout towers, and I was heading to the third one when it started raining so I reluctantly turned back. The wind in a storm at that height was fantastic! I met Brent back at the first tower and we waited out the storm inside. When I went on by myself, a guy started hiking with me for some reason. I think he was taking pictures of me, so I decided to face him head on and offered to take his picture. From there on he acted like my best friend and kept stopping me at every turn and asking me to take his picture. He didn't speak any English. He was from Russia and his name was Misha, that's all I could understand. When it started raining, I turned around to go back and he wanted me to keep climbing. I didn't want to so he turned around and headed back with me. When I finally saw Brent again I called him and Misha was gone like a flash, took off running down the steps. Hehe. While Brent and I waited in the tower for the rain to pass I climbed up on top of the tower- again without Brent. Two guys were up there. I offered to take their picture as well and instead they both wanted to take turns having a picture taken with me! So weird! When the rain finally let up enough to go down, we saw a European couple. The woman grabbed Brent and put her arm around him and the guy started taking the picture. I was still standing next to Brent and the man asked me to move out of the way because they only wanted a picture of my husband!! Still can't quite understand why people want pictures of strangers! Brent caught the bug though and kept trying to get a picture of himself and some soldiers that were also touring the great wall. It was so funny they would scatter every time he would run up to them and ask for their picture. He finally got a picture of himself with them in the background, that is as close as we got. At the end, I bought a T-shirt that said in perfect English, “I have climbed the Great Wall”. It gives a history of the great wall on the back that isn't translated as well, it's sort of a jumble of words. Brent got a “hero” plaque saying he climbed the Great Wall. There is an inspiring quote on it that says. “If we do not reach the Great Wall, we are no heroes” Brent kept trying to ask who said it, and the vendors couldn't tell us. When we got back in the car with our translator she told us Mao Zedong said it, the one who brought communism to China. We could have bought a T-shirt with all the communist “heroes” pictured on the shirt, Stalin, Lenin, Marx, and Chairman Mao. Nothing about the dynasties that built the wall but plenty of Communist Pride.

6 degrees of separation
Our translator asked what Brent did for a living, he told her he was a minister, She understood enough to guess that it was religous so she said, “Do you know uh,Steven... Steven” Brent said, “Steven Curtis Chapman?” Yes! She told us she was his guide not too long ago. We asked if it was his second adoption, she said no, he was there with his friend who was adopting. Brent said, Geoff Moore?!! Yes, that was his name. Cool we had the same guide. :-) She said he gave her a CD but he didn't sing for her. Hehe

Touring
We toured a cloisine (sp) factory and a jade factory. The vendors at the end were pretty pushy. I had to use my first “squatty potty” ewwww! Not fun. I can't imagine trying to take a child to use one of those.

At the jade factory the guide giving us a tour kept telling us Brent had a belly like Buddha so he must have a happy family. No sense that that might be a rude thing to say!

We drove past several Olympic Venues, the Bird's Nest, the Swimming Cube. They buildings themselves are just fantastic. They planted Roses that line the streets all over Beijing for the Olympics, they are just beautiful. Around 5pm our bodies told us it was time for bed or there would be consequences. We still had to walk out and find something to eat. Found a shopping mall not far from our hotel and there was actually a Dairy Queen inside! So I had a blizzard for dinner and Brent had a hot dog. I could have had a green tea blizzard, but I opted for chocolate, it did taste a little strange though. Brent said his hot dog tasted great, probably because he had never had a genuine hot 'dog' before. Hehe

Here are some pictures of our day. Click on any of them to see more on Flickr.

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