Beijing and the Great Wall- Friday, July 29, 2016

     We got the girls up easier today, ate our fill at the hotel breakfast buffet, and met John and the driver at 7:45.  It was about an hour or so ride this morning, but we had lots to watch.  We told Anna not to take notes from our driver.  It seemed like he took us most of the way while driving on the shoulder of the road in order to get around slow traffic.  Julie noticed that he occasionally merged back in and realized that he was doing that to avoid the police cameras that were posted on poles every so often.  He'd even pass over solid yellow lines on curvy mountain roads or by using the lane with the red "X" when we were in a tunnel.  But to be fair, he wasn't the only one.  There were lots of other drivers doing the same things.

     Our first stop was the Run-ze Jade Garden, a place where they make and sell jade.  We saw people demonstrating how they carve and polish each individually crafted piece.  We were shown that jade comes in more colors than just the green that we're most familiar with, and shown some amazing pieces that were done by the craftsmen there.  There was a large shop to browse through afterwards and a really amazing variety of beautiful jade carvings to see.

     As we drove to the section of the Great Wall we were going to visit today, we passed through the section which we had visited in 2004, which is called Juyongguan Pass.  Shortly beyond that was a camel resting by a stream.  John said a local farmer kept it to charge people for photographs at the Wall with it so they can look like Marco Polo or a Silk Road trader.

     The part of the Wall we visited today is the most famous section called Badaling.  Both the Juyonggong Pass and the Badaling sections of the Great Wall are part of the 4000 mile stretch that was built during the Ming Dynasty.  We got dropped off nearer than many other tour groups, it seems.  Then we walked up a touristy street with many shops and even a Subway restaurant.  We stopped at a hotel with a very large shop in it, bought some water, and then made our way out to the Wall.

     John took us up to the first "watchtower" and took a couple of pictures of our family.  Then he left us to let us explore on our own, which was a welcome change from yesterday.  We knew it was a good sign that he warned us several times on the way there not to push ourselves.  We chose to go to the right, i.e. to the south, which John said was more crowded but not as steep as the left way, to the north.

     The whole family went up to the next watchtower.  It was cool and breezy inside it, and we found a window where we stepped out of the crowds for a moment.  Julie and Emma decided to stay at that watchtower while Scott and Anna climbed up two more.  The climbing was very steep, mostly on a grade, not on steps.  The day was hot and hazy.

     There were lots of opportunities for picture taking.  Anna took lots with her camera, but she also
got pictures taken of her.  While Scott was taking one, picture of her, he noticed one guy in the background was checking her out.  Scott waited patiently to retake the shot, but the next guy to pass her was caught doing the same thing.  Later, a family took five pictures of their teenage son standing with her.  One guy even took a selfie with Scott, though, too.

     All of last summer, Scott and the staff at Fort Niagara had to tell Chinese tourists to get down off the walls of the fort.   They were always posing there when their tour buses brought them in by the hundreds.  Scott said last summer that he was going to go to the Chinese Wall, find the place where the signs said "Keep off" and stand there.  Well, he didn't actually climb on the dangerous ledge, but he did pose like he was, and also posed by the "No climbing on the battlements" sign.

     Climbing up was hard, but climbing down seemed worse.  Scott's legs were wobbly by the time he got to the rest of the family, and the sweat kept rolling into his eyes.  The family made their way back to the large gift shop of the hotel that was right there.  Scott had to sit and have a cold Coke Light in the tea room, but the three girls looked around and shopped.  Anna and Emma didn't like that the salespeople followed them around and tried to sell them more.  Once they were done, John took us upstairs for a buffet lunch that had something for everyone to eat,  We enjoyed this meal quite a bit.

     After Scott had a chance to shop too, we went back to the van and settled in for the ride back to the hotel.  Once again, when we got to the hotel a little after 3:00, no one wanted to move.  The maids were still trying to clean Scott and Julie's room, but most of us got at least a little nap in.

     One of the things from our 2004 trip that we wanted the girls to experience was the high energy outdoor marketplace called the Silk Market.  Julie had a lot of fun there with the sales people calling out to her and with the bargaining she got to do.

     We got a cab at the hotel and pointed to the "Silk Market" on the list of sites on the map so the driver would know where to take us.  When we got there, the place looked absolutely nothing like what we knew it had before.  There was a large new building filled with what looked like high-end stores.  We thought sure that the driver had made a mistake.  We found a pizza place and had a good tasting dinner there while we tried to figure out what was going on and what to do next.

     What we didn't know at the time was that the outdoor market that we remembered from 2004 had been replaced by this new building of shiny steel and glass in 2005.  We figured that since we were there anyway, we'd take a look around,  and even though the signs said that bargaining wasn't welcome, we soon found that we were being called into stores by clerks and they were ready to come down quite a bit in price.  Julie bought some pearls for herself and Emma helped her get a better price by whispering that she didn't like them.  The girls each got some souvenirs for a lot less than they  were marked and they were impressed with their mother's negotiating skills.  At least, they were impressed until she got us a cab (which was actually a "black car," an unlicensed taxi) while a scarf salesman was following her on the sidewalk and right to the window of the car.  He kept offering more and more silk scarves for lower and lower prices until he finally got her to buy ten scarves for ¥100 (about $16).  Then another lady started handing her wallets through the car window to try to sell Julie those too.  All the while, Anna and Emma were laughing hysterically in the back seat.

     Today was a much better day than yesterday and everyone seemed to have a much better time.