Today we woke up on time (only 4 alarm clocks this time!) and readied for our day of touring. The breakfast buffet is amazing… Adam is in heaven, he’s a big time breakfast person. We met up with our travel group at 8:30 and headed out on the bus for our big day. Our first stop was the Jade Factory, I had already visited this before but Adam hadn’t so I handed over the camera to him for the day. I don’t want Jack to be shorted on pictures just because his mom already has seen these things. So Adam’s fresh eyes were going to be much better. We enjoyed wandering the shop (calling it a factory is kind of a stretch… it’s really just a tourist shop, but fun none the less).
After the shop, we were off to the Great Wall! We visited the same stretch of wall that Mom, Erin and I did last time. I think I’d forgotten what a tough climb it is… lots of steep stairs, some extremely tall (even for tall folks like us)… I decided to stop when we reached the first main landing, and Adam headed onto the “top”. I figured, once in a lifetime is enough to go all the way to the top, and this time I was going to play it easy (and I don't even think I'd call it 'easy'). Plus, I remembered how tense it is when heading down… your legs are like jelly and again, it’s extremely steep so I end up gripping the hand-rail to make sure I don’t trip… so I wanted to save some stamina for that. I definitely wasn’t the only one who decided the first stop was far enough, so that was comforting. The wall was also extremely crowded, so it added to my anxiety about navigating it. The reward for me at the end was finding a place selling Coke Light (Diet Coke in China). I grabbed one for then, and three for later! Heavenly!
After the Great Wall, we headed to the Friendship Store/Cloisonné Factory for lunch and some more tourist shopping. (same place we went, Mom & Erin!) Lunch was great… it was served family style, and there was plenty to go around. We ate with a wonderful family who is traveling with three children… you should have seen the older boys eyes light up when they brought out a basket of French fries! I imagine my girls would react exactly the same way! After lunch, we stopped by the Olympic buildings. We got to get some pictures of the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. We had thought we’d be able to go inside, but we were only given 30 minutes time and quickly realized that we had misunderstood. Apparently, some folks from our group made it up to the buildings and found that they had a $10 entrance fee… so we probably would have skipped anyways. Adam and I walked up the walkway until we were about to hit another security checkpoint, and we had just walked past a crowd of people surrounding what we thought was a dead body. Time to take our pics and leave! (the “dead” man was walking around as we were heading back, thank goodness, don’t know why he was collapsed on the ground previously but he was apparently fine).
Our final stop of the day was a Chinese Acrobat show… which was breathtaking. The theater was rather run-down, but the show more than made up for it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (I was trying to upload some short videos I captured, but its estimating 30 minutes each for them to upload, so that's a No Go)… imagine a full hour packed with amazing performances such as these. It was definitely the highlight of my day.
For dinner, we headed to a nearby Thai restaurant and dined with a fellow BaiChina (a yahoogroup for adoptive families with children with albinism) mom and her mom. Her oldest son is from the same orphanage Jack is from, and she is here to bring home her third son with albinism. It was a lovely evening! Dinner was a super spicy fried rice… it was delish if you could get past the fact that your mouth was on fire. We came back to the room and packed back up again… we head out at 8am to go to Zhengzhou in the Henan Province, where in less than 36 hours, we should be meeting our son!! We're missing the girls like crazy, but know that they are in great hands... love you girls, can't wait to have ALL my kids together when we come home!
After the shop, we were off to the Great Wall! We visited the same stretch of wall that Mom, Erin and I did last time. I think I’d forgotten what a tough climb it is… lots of steep stairs, some extremely tall (even for tall folks like us)… I decided to stop when we reached the first main landing, and Adam headed onto the “top”. I figured, once in a lifetime is enough to go all the way to the top, and this time I was going to play it easy (and I don't even think I'd call it 'easy'). Plus, I remembered how tense it is when heading down… your legs are like jelly and again, it’s extremely steep so I end up gripping the hand-rail to make sure I don’t trip… so I wanted to save some stamina for that. I definitely wasn’t the only one who decided the first stop was far enough, so that was comforting. The wall was also extremely crowded, so it added to my anxiety about navigating it. The reward for me at the end was finding a place selling Coke Light (Diet Coke in China). I grabbed one for then, and three for later! Heavenly! 
After the Great Wall, we headed to the Friendship Store/Cloisonné Factory for lunch and some more tourist shopping. (same place we went, Mom & Erin!) Lunch was great… it was served family style, and there was plenty to go around. We ate with a wonderful family who is traveling with three children… you should have seen the older boys eyes light up when they brought out a basket of French fries! I imagine my girls would react exactly the same way! After lunch, we stopped by the Olympic buildings. We got to get some pictures of the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. We had thought we’d be able to go inside, but we were only given 30 minutes time and quickly realized that we had misunderstood. Apparently, some folks from our group made it up to the buildings and found that they had a $10 entrance fee… so we probably would have skipped anyways. Adam and I walked up the walkway until we were about to hit another security checkpoint, and we had just walked past a crowd of people surrounding what we thought was a dead body. Time to take our pics and leave! (the “dead” man was walking around as we were heading back, thank goodness, don’t know why he was collapsed on the ground previously but he was apparently fine). 
Our final stop of the day was a Chinese Acrobat show… which was breathtaking. The theater was rather run-down, but the show more than made up for it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (I was trying to upload some short videos I captured, but its estimating 30 minutes each for them to upload, so that's a No Go)… imagine a full hour packed with amazing performances such as these. It was definitely the highlight of my day. 
For dinner, we headed to a nearby Thai restaurant and dined with a fellow BaiChina (a yahoogroup for adoptive families with children with albinism) mom and her mom. Her oldest son is from the same orphanage Jack is from, and she is here to bring home her third son with albinism. It was a lovely evening! Dinner was a super spicy fried rice… it was delish if you could get past the fact that your mouth was on fire. We came back to the room and packed back up again… we head out at 8am to go to Zhengzhou in the Henan Province, where in less than 36 hours, we should be meeting our son!! We're missing the girls like crazy, but know that they are in great hands... love you girls, can't wait to have ALL my kids together when we come home!
gorgeous photos! i miss the great wall. we will be in guangzhou for our entire trip (again! third time!). went to beijing only once. enjoy!!
ReplyDeleteyour son, jack, looks so much like my son, grant. if he were from jiangsu province, i'd say maybe relations! he so beautiful!!!
a very happy family day to you all.
ralph (ccaiwcp)
36 hours!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!! *hugs*
ReplyDeleteEEGGads you packed alot of stuff into one day! The photos of the wall are wonderful. It was so "foggy" when we were there we couldn't really see it so well! Safe flight...won't be long now and you will have him in your arms.
ReplyDeleteAnd I LOVE all the details of your posts!!!
Tricia :)