Day 2–Beijing…A Great Wall Indeed

First may I say that I love walking out of the Park Plaza Hotel and seeing this directly across the street…

There’s no place like home.  So we woke up to rain and colder whether than we had expected or packed for. I had done a lot of hand washing of clothes the when we arrived, one piece being Noah’s hoodie jacket, which was still soaking wet when we woke up. Knowing we would need the jacket since it was only in the mid-60’s!! (are you kidding me, it was 92 in Beijing the day before we left!) I proceeded to drag out the hair dryer and the iron and for about an hour Eric and I worked on the jacket and some other warmer items we had worn on the plane. Note to self: spend ridiculous amounts of money on laundry service for the remainder of the trip! On the way to the Great Wall our guide was discussing Jade and its significance in Chinese culture. She offered to take us to the Jade factory that won the bid to design and create the medals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So off we went.

I ended up purchasing a beautiful Jadeite bracelet for Hope, for when she gets older. If you wear a Jadeite bracelet constantly it will over time turn a darker, richer shade of green if you are in good health. If is does not turn a darker shade of green you are either in poor health or you have been duped into buying something that is not true Jade. Chinese tradition is that a Mother would pass down a Jadeite (the best quality Jade there is) bracelet to their daughter or daughter-n-law.  Traditionally the Mother would give their daughter the bracelet when the daughter would wed and went off to live with their new husband’s family. When the daughters would return home on visits a few times a year the parents would check to make sure the bracelet was still green and becoming even greener. If this was so, then they knew their daughter was being treated well and they did not need to worry. If the bracelets started losing their color then the parents knew their daughters were not in good health and they would worry. Now it is more of tradition for tradition’s sake.

We also got Eden and Hope matching purple Jade pendants that have the Chinese character for Happiness on it. Noah got a Jade dragon…of course. Eric got to pay for it all. Below Noah is standing in front of a Jade ship made out of one piece of jade! Check out the chains and all! It costs $57,000.00! We picked up two…bwah ha ha ha ha!

After the Jade factory we went to the Great Wall…in the cold rain…did I mention that? We arrived to the second Great Wall sightseeing point and went directly to a Chinese buffet. It was wonderful but Noah decided to start his two week China “fast”. Poor kid is gonna starve here. When we finished the rain had let up and we headed up the wall. It is a truly amazing feat of human hands. 4000 miles of this wall made over 2000 years is astounding. We hiked till we were out of breath (which wasn’t very far), took some pictures and headed back to the van. We were now off to the Hutongs.

However…we took a detour to a silk factory because Noah wanted a Kung-Fu outfit. We learned all about how silk is made which was pretty fascinating actually, we got Noah’s outfit and THEN we were off to the Hutongs.

 

What is a Hutong…do you say? It is the old town part of Beijing that the government is now trying to preserve. It is real life local culture and people. We loved it. We felt the most comfortable there. We go to visit a home of one of the locals there and it was a wonderful experience. We had a precious little guide, Angelina, who just graduated college and who lives in the Hotongs to guide around. She was so sweet! We took a Rickshaw / Paddy cart, which is an old school rickshaw in the back but it is bicycle driven. We almost crashed only 3 times. Not joking. Our driver was amazing and none of the times were his fault, he deftly maneuvered us out of harms way. We had a Rickshaw traffic jam near miss collision and two Rickshaw vs. Car near misses. Good times in Beijing…good times.

After the Hutong tour, we were dropped off at the mall to hit the McDonalds for Noah…again. Bless this child. We headed back the hotel and all were in bed asleep by 6;30 p.m. I slept fitfully at best often waking, the boys got up at 3:30 a.m. and raided the food boxes. We all seemed to be able to stay in bed till about 6:00 a.m. End Day 2 in Beijing.