Then we met Helen, our driver and another Lifeline family to take a tour of the Great Wall of China. We knew it could take about 1.5 hours to drive out to the wall location we planned to visit, but we didn't arrive until noon even though we left around 9:30am. The traffic in and around Beijing is unbelievable! Luckily our group did very well on the long ride.
We arrived, visited the scary public bathrooms and made our way to purchase tickets to ride the sky lift (chair lifts) up to the wall. We rode the chair lifts and had amazing views as we approached the Great Wall. Then Helen made some nice photos of each family and sent us off to explore the wall while she waited for us. Brian is quite adventurous, and we made our way up and down the wall through about 10 watchtowers! That was equivalent to about 121 flights of stairs.
When we returned to the meeting point, we waited in line to ride a land toboggan down from the wall. What a terrific day! We had a once in a lifetime experience visiting the Great Wall of China!
Helen brought our families to a local Chinese restaurant very near the Great Wall. Our meal was served family style. So Helen ordered us a variety of dishes so we could sample many authentic food items - sweet and sour pork, Kung pow chicken, rice, vegetable wraps (similar to egg rolls), steamed broccoli, noodles, Chinese pancake and fried potatoes and peppers (like very thin French fries and peppers). There were 11 in our group and our combined bill was less than $45. What a deal for a fantastic meal!
We drove over to the Cloisonne factory where they handcrafted beautiful urns, vases and other decorative items. We were given a tour of each step of the process - amazingly talented artists. We purchased a few items - fancy chopsticks, bracelets and a little dragon since Emma was born in the year of the dragon.
Then we began our long drive back to the city. Nearly everyone fell asleep on our drive back. Once we returned to the hotel, we walked over to Pizza Hut for dinner again - Aidan's new favorite meal!
Sunday is our travel day to Chongqing - Gotcha is planned for Monday. We will find out the details when we arrive in her province.
This is amazing ! China is a very wonderful place. Really, your traveling to Great Wall of China is very interesting. I went last year on that place. I really enjoyed at that time. I think Great Wall Trekking Tours China is awesome . Keep blogging.
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