Beijing Touring-Day #2

A canon on the Great Wall.

We have ended our final day of touring in Beijing. I'm now sitting in my hotel room with a lovely glass of white wine from the corner market, listening to Steve give Elise a much needed bath.

Speaking of the bath....it's been a challenge to remind her (and myself) to not drink the water. Fortunately, I don't think she's ingested any. Just a remember to anyone traveling with a 3 year old...bring a few tub toys.

Where's the place for the coin?

What a busy day! We started off going to the Jade Factory. This was the place I was looking forward to. I wanted a jade bangle bracelet. I didn't get one the last time and I definitely wasn't going to pass on it again. It was the same jade factory that we visited on our first trip. Elise wanted her photo taken by every animal statue in the place. It was actually refreshing. Typically, she won't stand still and doesn't care to have her photo taken.

Walking up the Great Wall.

After the jade factory, we went to the Great Wall. Again, it was the same location as the last trip. The biggest difference was that it was rainy and very overcast today. Of course, let me mention the pollution. WOW...it was not clear at all today. We couldn't even see the upper part of the wall. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I really love the photos and view from the upper portions. But sadly, it wasn't a day to see those things. The photos are not the greatest either. We hiked as high as Elise could stand. She wasn't in the best of moods. I had her in my hip carrier and at first she didn't want to sit in it. Then she didn't want out of it. Then she just wanted her Aunt Candy. We did go up the opposite side of the wall this time, than last time. That was fun. There were actually portions of the walk up that was not steps, just a nice incline.

A view from the bottom

A view from an "upper" vantage point

Lunch was at the Cloisonne Factory/Friendship Store. Debbie, I can hear you laughing now. Yes, it's the exact same place as the last trip. I will tell you that nothing has changed. We enjoyed lunch here too.

Now we are off to the Summer Palace. Again, not much can be seen with the pollution. A bit disappointing. I really wanted Candy and Lisa to experience this.

Empress Dowager Cixi's dinner boat...she ate her dinner here

Pearls, pearls, pearls. Yes, we went to the Summer Palace Pearl Factory. This was different than the last trip. I got a set of pearls for Amelia. I think I liked the factory from trip #1 better than this place. It was bigger and offered more.

A street vendor was outside the Pearl Factory and was a bit aggressive with my sister. She told him no to the t-shirts and then he started with the Rolex watches. Again, she told him know and he continued to ask her and invade her personal space. She finally let lose on him with some good ole American Slang and he got the message. Unfortunately, I walked out right after that and he begin to harass me. When he made fun of the way I say, "No, thank you" (in Chinese). I let him have it too. There was no need for him to be rude to me since I was doing my best to say no politely.

Then to cap off our evening, Steve decided to be funny and he grabbed the guides microphone and decided to be "tour guide". Fortunately, there were restrooms close by since we were all laughing so hard we were crying and about to wet our pants. It was great comic relief after a very long day.

So word of advice for those of you heading this direction...being nice sometimes gets you no where and you just gotta lay it out there for them!

Dinner tonight was Peking Duck. It was delicious and now I was more than ready to return to our hotel. So here we are about 12 hours after we left, relaxing and getting ready to pack things up for our departure tomorrow.

Two days until Miss Amelia is finally in my arms.

Our flight is at 11:30 a.m. and our guide is picking us up at around 8 a.m. to head to the airport. I'll post when we get to Chengdu. We're looking forward to checking in and relaxing.