April
9, Monday
An artist making a piece with a diamond bit
One of the huge pieces for sale. At least 4 feet long and almost 2 feet high
Details of the ship's carvings
Some pieces are exquisite and you can see right through them.
Others have been grouped to make ornate decorative pieces
from small pieces of jewelry to entire dining sets !
And yes, I did buy myself a small piece of jewelry. (Perla, I bought a pendant that will go beautifully with the jade earrings I purchased in New York City.) We are at the jade shop for over one hour since quite a few of my fellow travellers purchased some items as well. (Michael: I hope your items got home safely).
Glimpses of the wall along the way
But not quite to the top of this hill. I turned back at the point where the wall turns right, below the fourth tower.
As the morning advances, so does the smog
Looking back down they way I've come, that's a steep climb.
Just below the point where I turned back
And this was the view back down when I turned back
Wow, I climbed up a long way from those dark gray buildings.
The twins with the pencils Wendy gave them !
Wendy and I on the Great Wall of China. Thank you for sharing this moment with me my friend !
Some of the worn steps. Thank God they did not build them as high as Inca or Maya staircases; I wouldn't have been able to climb us as high as I did otherwise.
Beautifully carved murals on the way into & out of Badalang
The view from the restaurant roof top where we were treated to lunch and wine !
What an incredibly amazing day !
The Bird's Nest, 2008 Beijing Olympics
I know I must be repeating myself, but the architecture is great. Why can't our North American architects comew up with some imaginative designs. Here is "the dragon", IBM's set of buildings. Tallest one is the head, 3 middle ones the back, and last one the tail.
The "main drag" is a 10 lane road.
Yvette, we have a big day today ! The main destination is the Great Wall of
China. You are in my thoughts.
But on the way, we make an obligatory stop at a Jade
Store. Although they say that it is a
workshop, the display of a two people working on a few pieces is really just
for show; not sure where their actual
workshop is located, but they do make their own original pieces. Who knew there were so many different colours
of jade: yellow, red, brown, blue in
addition to all shades of green (from almost white to a dark green). 
An artist making a piece with a diamond bit
One of the huge pieces for sale. At least 4 feet long and almost 2 feet high
Details of the ship's carvings
Some pieces are exquisite and you can see right through them.
Others have been grouped to make ornate decorative pieces
from small pieces of jewelry to entire dining sets !And yes, I did buy myself a small piece of jewelry. (Perla, I bought a pendant that will go beautifully with the jade earrings I purchased in New York City.) We are at the jade shop for over one hour since quite a few of my fellow travellers purchased some items as well. (Michael: I hope your items got home safely).
We continue on our journey into the Beijing countryside
and we catch great glimpses of portions of the wall on our way to Badaling, our
destination.
Glimpses of the wall along the way
We are given a choice of two sides:the one on the right is the easier climb and that is the one most of us opt for;the one on the left is quite a steep climb.Michael came up with a great line“I fought the wall and the wall won.” Would have made a great T-shirt.
But not quite to the top of this hill. I turned back at the point where the wall turns right, below the fourth tower.
The Great Wall of China, “the only man-made object visible to the naked eye from outer
space. Built in the 5th
century BC to protect China from the aggressive northern Tartars and winding
6000 km through Northern China, the Great Wall stands 6.5 meters high. Towers 11 to 12 meters high were built into
the wall every 180 to 270 meters. The entrance is set up like a tourist area
with shops, restaurants and the ticket office.
Thankfully, we are given free time here to climb by ourselves as high,
or as low as we want.
As the morning advances, so does the smog
Looking back down they way I've come, that's a steep climb.
Just below the point where I turned back
And this was the view back down when I turned backWow, I climbed up a long way from those dark gray buildings.
What an experience !
It was nice to have someone to share this with. I climbed up with Wendy and met others from
our group along the way. Wendy was
handing out pencils and stickers to little children and it was cute to see
their reactions, as well as their parents (once they realized she wasn’t trying
to sell them).
The twins with the pencils Wendy gave them !
Wendy and I on the Great Wall of China. Thank you for sharing this moment with me my friend !
Some of the worn steps. Thank God they did not build them as high as Inca or Maya staircases; I wouldn't have been able to climb us as high as I did otherwise.
Beautifully carved murals on the way into & out of Badalang
The view from the restaurant roof top where we were treated to lunch and wine !
What an incredibly amazing day !
On the way back to Beijing we stop at the 2008 Olympic
Site to view the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.
This was quite disappointing however since the bus stopped on the side
of a major road and we were given the opportunity to take pictures from there
! We were told there was no time to
actually enter the site since there were so many people and we wouldn’t be able
to see inside the buildings. Sorry, unable to get a good shot of the Water Cube.
The Bird's Nest, 2008 Beijing Olympics
The "main drag" is a 10 lane road.
Tonight we are treated to a Peking Duck dinner at a very
nice restaurant. Yummy !
At the hotel, the dress maker is there for our first fitting;
mine is absolutely beautiful and fits like it was made to measure J. It will be ready by tomorrow morning before
we leave.
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