Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today is our first full day in Beijing and this morning we visited the Great Wall. It is a very hot and sunny day today so fortunately we went first thing this morning although it was still hot. About half a dozen of us made it to fortress 12 which was the highest point at this section of the wall.
I'm not sure if this was the same section as before but if it is they have done a lot of work on the steps since last time so none of them were crumbling this time but the variation in depth of step was still the same.
The views were spectacular and much clearer than last time and the mountains and trees are breathtaking. It was just as amazing as the first time. Loved it.
From there we moved on to lunch and a local restaurant - one the Chinese people use not a tourist one. They specialise in fish dishes. The veggie table was in a separate room and the number of veggies is decreasing so we are now seven. Each table sits 10 so the fishes brought out are for ten people. We had 16 different dishes!!! It looked like we hadn't eaten anything but we did export some dishes to the meat eating tables. There was still a lot on the table though.
After that we went to the Jade Factory where we were given a talk about jade. Although some of us had heard it before the guy doing the talk was very entertaining. As he was finishing sales assistants appeared from all corners ready to pounce on those who wanted to buy and especially those who didn't know they wanted to buy!
A few of us went into another room and did some Tai Chi and Qigong practice which was lovely. The building was lovely and cool and when we got back in the coach the temperature was 35 degrees outside.
Our next trip was to a tea house and I managed to sit between two people who didn't like tea so I had a great time. We tried Oolong, Pu'Er, Jasmine and fruit tea. The tea ceremony is something else and then of course at the end we get taken into the shop to spend more money.
The group has now split as half have gone to the Peking Opera and the rest of us are at the hotel with free time now till dinner at 7.30pm.
Tomorrow we are off to the Forbidden City and silk factory - more money will be spent that's for sure.
- comments