Saturday July 28, Ming Tomb and Great Wall of China

Today was unbelievable and quite busy! I met the couple from Michigan in the lobby this morning at 7:50. It's a good thing I had been up since 3:00AM... I had no problem being 5 minutes early! Im trying to stay up later tonight, in the hope of sleeping through the night. We were joining our travel guide for our tour of The Ming Tomb and The Great Wall of China. We drove through a large portion of the city and I saw such unique sites! The driving is incredible in Beijing... Makes Manhattan like like a piece of cake! I was really starting to think, 'Well, the drivers, moped, and bicycle riders all seem to have it worked out! It really works well here!'. Unfortunately, this morning a moped rider ran right into the side of our small tour bus! The whole side of his head and cheek hit one of our windows! The moped driver just backed up a few inches, and waved our driver on!

The Ming Tomb was incredible, and almost difficult to put into words. The age of China and the depth of the cultural history is daunting to this American citizen... Everything is just magnificent! We stopped next at the State Jade Market, much different from the private Pearl Market I visited just yesterday. There is no negotiating at this market, of course. The jade was truly exquisite, and I could have stayed all afternoon! I saw a jade carving of a tiger... It was easily as tall as I was! We ate lunch as a group and we all had a chance to try a few foods new to us! We climbed quite a bit in altitude in order to get to The Great Wall. When we arrived, the fog was so thick off of the mountains that we had no more than a 10 foot visibility range. It was so strange... We are climbing The Great Wall, and literally can't see anything on either side of us! It was almost a bit intimidating! No one ventured more than a few feet of each other in our travel group! I can't wait to tell you all about it! The sites have been breathtaking, without a doubt! It's funny, however, because the family from Michigan and I were talking about the monuments, and agreeing that we sometimes have difficulty concentrating on the wonders of China because we just can't stop thinking about our sons! Tomorrow is not the biggest day of all, however, it is still a big day. I'm flying to Guangzhou tomorrow, and there, I'll go to the Civil Affairs Office on Monday in order to pick Luke up! I'm getting very close now!