Beijing Day 5 - Still a very good wall

On day 5, Kris and Matt decided to stay home in the morning. We missed the Forbidden city and Tianmen square. But we have seen these twice before and Libby desperately needed a break. The pace of sightseeing on adoption trips is frankly impossible for a 4 year old, even a kid with as much energy as Libby. Irv and Sher can fill you in on their visit to the historic landmarks, I know they are stunningly beautiful and historic, steeped in history and tradition, yada yada.

For our peng yos who are returning for their second adoption and are bringing young children, I recommend you simply cross off about half your itinerary, and spend more time close to the hotel just visiting the neighborhoods. This will allow you to take more time to rest your child (and yourself) rather than racing at a breakneck pace to gotcha day and arriving exhausted. Okay, no more advice

Some of you may remember I have previously suggested that we simply rename the great wall to the "very good wall". Not because it lacks grandeur, or shouldn't be one of the great wonders, which it clearly is. But simply because it's so treacherous to walk up a few feet, and with a 4 year old extremely terrifying, that it's a bit difficult to truly take in it's majesty. Hence the name change. Here I have presented some photographic evidence that Irv and Sher have indeed made a treacherous and death defying climb up the first battlement to claim their rightful title of "Hero". Our guide informed us that Mao had said that all Chinese citiizens who stood on the great wall were Heroes. I assume he was talking about tourists too.

The pictures simply do not do justice in showing the sheer magnitude of the slope, and extrememe unneveness of the stairs, some of them are about 18-20 inches tall and others are 3 inches tall, this uneveness combined with the extreme slope makes for a seriously scary ascent.

An important tradition is placing a lock on the great wall, and keeping the key. There is a long chain affixed to the great wall where thousands of locks have been placed over the years, and we are told that many people do this so their wishes will come true "forever" as the lock will remain on the wall forever. The lock also connects you to China forever, as you leave your name etched on a lock permanently affixed to the wall. I'd like to think we have both our wish and the connection. Libby put the lock on the wall for us, she wouldn't say what her wish was.

I bet she wished for ice cream. Refridgeration is at a premium here in China and the grocery stores have very little of it. The ice cream is stored in small chest freezers and very expensive. I believe that Kris paid about $5 US for this strawberry Hagen Daaz, which is probably not much more than you would pay in the US for this, but extremely expensive by Chinese standards.

The next morning we awoke at 4:30 AM when the tailor delivered our clothes. We had clothes made, and since there was little time for refitting, we did our fitting at 10PM the night before we left, and the tailor had to go back and do the final alterations in the middle of the night and deliver the clothes by 4:30 since we had to leave the hotel by 6AM. I have a great respect for Chinese tailors. Can you imagine an American tailor doing that for a tourist.