Great Wall, Jade, and Tea!

We had a blast today. I now get why people love China. We are in a groove and over jetlag so we could completely enjoy everything around us.

To start the day we headed to the Jade Factory. It is amazing what they can make out of one stone. We watched how they used a tool and carved away to make jewelry, bowls, figurines and so many other objects. I will admit I have fallen in love with jade jewelry. It is absolutely gorgeous!

Happiness Ball. There are three balls inside each symbolizes a generation in the family.

Gold fish - Chinese people love them for their beauty.

Budda! They compared me (Ben) to a budda at the shop, big belly and smiling a lot!!!

A dragon carved from jade.

Next to the big budda!

We then headed to the Great Wall. All I can say ..... AMAZING!!! We can not even start to fathom how that was made by hand. The pictures do not do it justice. From each tower you can see beautiful mountains. It is something I will never forget. The towers themselves are also unbelievable. The emperor would pick men whose job would be to live in the lookout towers and warn him if enemies were coming. This job was for life. They could never leave this post except if they died. There was 2 to 3 men per tower. Each tower had 3 levels. 1 st or lowest level, usually underground, stored the food which was brought to them by donkeys and camels. 2 nd level was for sleeping and 3 rd was the lookout. During the day if there was danger they would light wolf droppings ( yep that must have smelled just great and how would you like the job to walk around and gather it...lol). This caused very thick smoke you could see back at the palace. At night they lit a fire.

So how did the climbing go? Well we made it to the 3 rd tower which seemed to be the spot. After that one the crowd thinned out quite a bit. I will admit though it took Ben pushing me to go from the 2 nd tower to the 3 rd and a 5 yr old girl passing me up ;-)

Juli getting started and the great scenery!

Looking back on what we've accomplished up thus far!

What lies ahead!

Taking a quick photo break!

Looking back again!

Logjam on the wall. Lots of people until you get past the third tower!

We made it to the 3rd tower!

We ended the day with a lesson in tea. It was so interesting. I can not tell you enough that here in China there is truly a reason in everything they do, make or drink. We learned what teas to drink for beauty, sickness, cleansing of your body and more. It was so fun to sit and try all the different drinks.

Tea tasting!

Tomorrow we head to the train station with destination Zhengzhou! We get Caleb Monday morning 10am China time which I believe is 8pm Sunday night at home.

 

Here are some other sites of the day. Oh and let me tell you the traffic and driving is NUTS! On the highway I asked as we are weaving in and out...do cops ever pull people over for speeding? Oh sure they said but the speed limit is 100 mph so we are fine. Yep my heart dropped. No seatbelts and going that fast are not my cup of tea but we are back home safe and sound! Also it is crazy how many people are out riding their bikes about 3" away from cars driving down the street.

Each detailed is carefully colored using paint and pipettes.

These three wheeled carts are everywhere!

Busy corner!

Yellow and blue double decker bus, for you Nate.

 

Thanks for your continued support! We love hearing your encouraging thoughts and comments. 28 hrs and he will be in our arms!