3 The Great Wall of China

Our alarm clocks were set for 6:45am, as we were getting picked up at 7:30. I was just in the middle of a nice deep sleep when the phone rang. We were staying in a hotel with the word Nostalgia in the name and so the phone was one of those old school ones from the 60's...it rang loudly! I jumped up and grabbed the receiver, "hello, hello" I said before realizing the phone was upside down. I switched it around and our tour guide, Cindy informed me we would be picked up at 7:10 instead. I hung up the phone and my hands shook and my heart raced from the adrenaline of being awoken so suddenly.

We waited in the lobby, and met an older couple from India who were also on our tour (they were vegetarians and brought all their own food!). The driver arrived and we piled into the van. There were 3 Americans from Chicago already inside. Soon we were picking up our guide, Cindy and three more women, from Nicuragua. We stopped first at the Jade Museum. The jade was beautiful and as tempting as it was, I just couldn't see myself spending $200+ on a bracelet. Our next stop was The Ming Tombs. There was a beautiful building with a statue of the thirteenth Emperor in the middle of a large room.

We arrived at the Great Wall and then had a delicious lunch of Chinese food, well what we think of as Chinese food. Then it was time for the Great Wall. We walked up a steep hill, I was grateful at that moment for the cable car we were about to load into.

When we arrived to the top, we got into the cable car and got our first glimpse of the Wall. It was breathtaking. 

We walked back and forth along the wall, exploring and snapping pictures.

 They must have been short!

When we were nearly out of time, we loaded back onto the cable car and headed back down. The trip up was way less scary than the trip down. 

We loaded back in the van and headed back to Beijing. Part of our tour, which we didn't know about, was to get a foot massage, yes please! My feet were killing me. We sat down and put our feet into big buckets filled with hot water and some packs that looked like tea bags. We were served jasmine tea and a doctor came and told me what was wrong with me and told me that for $120 I could have herbs to help cure me. No thanks. I had a 10 minute foot massage and then we were on the road again.

Instead of going back to the hotel, we decided to go to the night market. We walked with the three from Chicago and found China's Time Square!

 It was much more than I expected! We headed into a small alley which was extremely crowded. There were food shops on either side and we wandered along, staring at all the eats available. Live cockroaches wriggled on sticks waiting to be deep fried, fruit coated in sugary syrup stuck out from cones of styrofoam, cooked and raw fish waited to be bought and prepared. We walked down, stopping for some dumplings, then turned back and wandered back. I bought a burrito sized spring roll and leaked liquid from the veggies all over myself.

 Giant, burrito sized spring rolls!

 It was a fun adventure but we were tired so headed back to the hotel. The next day we were going to have a busy day before heading to Datong and the hanging monestary.