Today, we went to Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. As we were driving to Tian An Men Square the guide told us that the buildings in Beijing were mixed between new and old buildings. He told us how there is no such thing as pedestrians have the ride of way. Drivers honk at you and you move or you get run over. It was crazy. Unless you are in a pack, they would get really close to running you over. We walked parts of Tian An Men Square and Forbidden City. The people selling stuff are really aggressive. There was one guy who walked with our group for almost a block trying to sell stuff. We ended up holding both of Nick’s hands so they couldn’t give him anything and he was sandwiched in between us. Our morning walk was our exercise for the morning according to the guide. We stopped for lunch and got a lesson on how to buy Jade. Knowing the difference between fake and real jade. Yup, you guessed it…Debi got some Jade. After lunch, we went to the Great Wall. WOW is all we can say about it. We had an hour and a half to walk the wall if we wanted. Debi’s mom and Nick walked up 1 flight of stair then stayed back. Debi made it to the first big beacon tower and hung out with a few of the ladies. Chuck and another guy from the group went to beacon tower 12 before turning back. On the way back to the hotel, we drove by the place were the Olympics were in 2008. We were going to go to this restuarant down the street from our hotel for Peking duck, but we were tired from walking the Great Wall we opted to eat at the hotel and call it an early night.
There were 30 adults and 10 kids in our group. Nick even made him a new friend. They got to carry our group flag once during the tour. We will try to post a few pictures from today, so check them out in the photo gallery.
We have to get up early to catch our flight to Nanchang, Jiangxi. Our luggage we are checking have to be in the hallway for the bellboy to pick up at 4:30AM. We have to be checked out of the hotel and in the lobby any 5:00AM. Our flight is about 2 hours to Nanchang. One more day to pick up Danni!!!
Nick is doing his homework in the mornings before we leave out and on the plane.