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.