China: Beijing, Day 2

It's amazing what a full night's sleep will do to you. I started out my day by Skyping with my kiddos. Whoever invented Skype deserves a special place in heaven. I was able to not only talk to, but SEE my children halfway across the world FOR FREE. A great start to a great day. After breakfast at the hotel, I got to check off a bucket list item, climb the Great Wall of China! Maggie took us to the Juyongguan Section of the wall, which is a little less touristy than some of the others. There are about 6 or 7 checkpoints on that section. By the time I made it to the first one, my fear of heights had taken over and I wasn't able to continue. That's ok, most people stopped at the same place. There was a gift shop right there and I felt sorry for the people who work there. I may or may not have bought a t-shirt that says "I climbed the Great Wall." I had no idea the climb would be so steep! The steps are uneven and most are super high. It doesn't help that the railings are low. But it was thrilling, nonetheless. We had a yummy lunch at the Jade Factory, prepared specifically for us. There were some stunning jade carvings for sale, some for thousands of dollars. Some small, such as beautiful jewelry and some very large, such as a ship twice the size of a person. We stopped briefly by the Olympic Site from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I wish we had been able to go inside the arenas, but we only walked around outside. There are some pretty cool-looking buildings. By this time, we were really feeling the heat of the day and the high humidity, so a nice rest at the hotel was just what we needed. After another buffet dinner at the hotel, a few of us alums decided to go exploring. We took the subway to the Chinese night market. Wow! I don't think, in my entire 30 years of living, I have EVER seen so many people in one place! We had to hold on to each other's backs just to stay together. I've never seen anything quite like it. I felt like it was straight out of a movie. The decorations were incredible, the food was... interesting. We saw live (live!) scorpions on a stick, along with a few other "delicacies." There were many stores to walk through and fun stuff to see. The clerk in the candy store commented to my Mandarin-speaking roommate that he had never seen so many white people in a Chinese candy shop. While we were there, it started pouring down rain. Like buckets. You should have seen the street vendors suddenly start shoving umbrellas in our faces. The snack street was one of the highlights of my entire trip. Even the subway part was fascinating. There were so many people on it that I didn't need to hold on to anything, the people just held me up. Such an adventure! It pays to be an adult.