Contact Us
Still having trouble adjusting to the 13-hour time change, so we were up early and had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. What a spread! Even Heather found enough variety to fill her plate. We both, however, passed on all the several variations of sushi.
After breakfast, we were picked up by our tour guide, Riat. She is a very petite 25-year-old Chinese lady who is incredible at speaking English. We loaded onto the tour bus with the Pierce family (Joe, Joy, and Harrison) who are from Oklahoma, and are also here to adopt their daughter.
First stop, the Jade Carving Factory. We watched some men carving and ladies polishing the jade articles. The detail is amazing. We were then directed to exit the production floor and enter the sales showroom. Thousands of square feet of carvings, jewelry and statues to examine and purchase. Heather was in Heaven, well almost!
After some "small" purchases, we again loaded into the tour bus and set out north toward the mountains. At this point we could not see the mountains because of the smog. That's what I said....smog! Beijing is a city of over 14-million people, and we were told that over 400 cars per day are being added to the city's highways.
I guess that this is as good a time as any to take a little rabbit rail to talk about the traffic. As you can imagine with 14-million people, the traffic should be ridiculous and at times it is. The first thing you must understand to drive, or even walk for that matter, in China, is that personal space means very little. What we in the United States would consider being "cut off", is in fact enough space to put two cars or one 40-60 passenger bus, and no one in this ordeal gets upset. The car horn is very vital during this process. And, after observing all day, this is what we think we understand about horn signals:
1 honk....Here I come, look out!
From the Jade Factory, we proceeded to the foot of the Great Wall. What a magnificent sight.
 From the photos you can see that it is built straight up the side of the mountain. The section we toured has 4 different levels with over 1100 steps to reach the top. We climbed to the second level and then decided that if we wanted to get back to the bottom without the aid of a helicopter, we would save the remaining two levels for another day! 
 From the Great Wall, we proceeded to the Cloisonne Factory. Cloisonne is similar to porcelain in appearance, but is quite different in fabrication. First, a copper structure is hammered out, and then copper wire is used to create a design on the base structure. The design is filled in with paint and then the article is fired in a furnace. The painting and firing is repeated several times until the coating is smooth, and then the whole piece is polished to a brilliant shine. Everything from vases, ornaments, statues and wall paintings are made in this fashion. We were, of course, invited into the showroom for some shopping.
 Lunch was at a restaurant above the factory. The meal was served in the Chinese cultural method. All the guests were seated at a large table housing a lazy Susan. The prepared dishes wer placed on the "Susan" and turned as needed to allow everyone to serve themselves their favorites. The items were all traditional Chinese fare with the exception of the French fries! After lunch, we toured the Ming Tombs. The tomb area consists of many, many acres that house the tombs and shrines associated with 13 of the 16 emperors from the Ming dynasty. The architecture and historical artifacts are beautiful.
 Last, but definitely not least, was our visit to the Chinese Natural Health Institute for some education in natural healing techniques and a foot massage. Everyone but me (Doug), really appeared to enjoy the massage. I, however, am still carrying the bruises on the bottom of both feet. Don't ever let anyone tell you that an 80 pound Chinese girl can't cause you some severe pain! Hi Preston and Christopher. We love and miss you. Hello Wes. Hope your trip home went well. We miss you, too, and hope to hear from you soon. One last thing for today....we have changed our e-mail address, so if anyone would like to contact us by e-mail while we are here in China, please just click on the little "Contact Us" icon on each page of our journal and you will be able to contact us directly. More tomorrow....
 |
 |
