Great Wall

German and I both actually slept quite well last night and were ready to conquer the Great Wall.  We met up with 5 other families from our adoption agency and took a bus there.  The guide said that there were 2 ways to go onto the wall and that one was steeper then the other and that he would be heading to the less steep side.  We thought we were headed with him but got ahead and it became clear pretty quick we were on the steep side.  Stairs and stairs and stairs and stairs, needless to say, I think my legs will be a bit sore tomorrow (German pooped out earlier so I continued on my own and actually managed to take pictures of myself with me phone).  The Great Wall was amazing and I am sooo glad we came a day early to see it.

 

We then had lunch and went on a rickshaw ride through an older part of Beijing.  We also drove by the Olympic Village and saw the Bird's Nest and Aquatic Cube which were really cool.

 

Beijing is interesting in that it has ~14 million people but it is very spread out so doesn't have nearly the feeling of dense humanity that Hong Kong does.  It is also very smoggy and doesn't really have much color, in a word the whole city is "greige."

 

Overall a very busy day.  But it kept us going.  Tomorrow we have an orientation with our agency and will get newer pics of Ella!!  Then more sightseeing and Sunday we fly out to Nanjinj and Monday meet Ella!!

 

I can only update our blog (which in turn goes to Facebook) through email because we can't access either Facebook or Blogspot from here (Chinese govt controls).  So hopefully the pics come across!

 

Until tomorrow...