Chang Cheng (Great Wall)

June 27, 2007

Today we would climb the Great Wall. We woke very early, 7:00am, to meet Elise downstairs, not at the usual 10:00, but at 8:00. After eating breakfast very quickly, we rushed downstairs to find Elise already waiting for us. Tom drove us 2 hours to the Great Wall at Badaling. We walked north words, climbing very high steps and very steep streets. After walking for over one and a half hours we met up with Elise who didn't feel like climbing today.

We then drove to the Dragon Restaurant. We had sweet and sour beef, soy sauce chicken, tofu with sweet sauce and fried rice with a lot of meat. After a very big meal, Tom drove us to a small village to learn about Chinese paper cutting and artificial flower making. The teacher had a student (all of the teenagers there had special needs), that demonstrated the art of paper cutting. She made two butterflys for Becca and me. Then we helped the teacher and the student make an artificial flower out of wire and silk fabric for us to keep. Then we walked to their warehouse where they store all of the hand made products. They make slippers, purses and of course paper cuttings. They had everything from small fish to huge cuttings of butterflys. All hand made. We bought 4 cuttings from them. Tomorrow we plan on leaving Beijing and going to the airport to fly to Wuhan at 8:30.

Kuaile du Rizi (Fun Day)

June 26, 2007

We woke up bright and early at 8:30 after going to sleep at 1:30am. After an exhausting day in Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, we were glad that we weren't climbing the Great Wall today. Once we had a very fulfilling breakfast we met Elise down int he lobby. We went on a 30 minute drive to go on a Hudong tour. We met our tourguide Kathy. We walked across the street to the Drum Tower. It ws a very nice building, very decorative. The drums were very high up so we had to climb 79 steps up on a straight incline. Mom got very scared going up. We reached the top at 10:45. Kathy told us they had a drum show at 11:00. We learned that the drums were used to tell time. We even got to see the largest drum in the world. We went outside and walked around the outside of the drum tower. We got to see the Bell Tower across the street that was also used for time telling. We also saw part of the Foribidden City and many houses from the top. After the drum beating show we carefully walked down the very steep steps. We got on a rickshaw (a bicycle driven taxi kind of thing), and toured China.
We went to see a kindergarten with kids ages ranging from 3 - 6 years old. We were not able to personally play or talk to the kids, but we saw them eating their food. We even had a child come up and personally greet us.
We got back on the rickshaw and rode to a family's house. We saw Mr. & Mrs. Wei's (pronounced Way) house. We learned that grashoppers are very common pets. A "sport" that men gamble on is grasshopper fighting. After seeing and learning a couple more buildings, we finally met up with Melody from CHI for lunch. We even visited Melody's home and met her youngest daughter Angela.
After visiting Melody's house we drove over to the CHI's Beijing foster home. We got to play with the kids. Sadly most of the kids had a disability, but ALL of them were VERY cute! (Grandma, we met a blind girl that LOVED your tag blankets!)
After the very memorable evening, Elise and us went to the Chinese Acrobats show. Flipping, turning, and balancing! Amazing! After the show, Tom drove us to Melody's house. We picked up Melody, her husband Kevin and two of thier 5 kids, LeeAnn and Angela . We had a very nice dinner. The main dish was "Beggers Chicken". Begger's Chicken is wrapped in a lotus leaf and cooked in the ground with mud for a very long time. All in all, today was VERY busy, but VERY fun. Today was a Kuaile du Rizi.

Kuaile de Rizi (fun day)