Wow what a busy day! We started out at 8:00 am for the Great Wall and stopped at the Cloisonne Factory along the way. This form of art is so tedious to make - a dying art and so beautiful. After shopping we made it to the Great Wall. This was the highlight Reed has been waiting for and did he ever embrace it. Those little legs were a climbing machine - he didn't want to stop. This spot of the Wall is so steep and narrow but he just kept on going. Many people wanted to touch him, rub his hair or even take photos with him - too bad he isn't a ham. After finishing up at the Wall with some souveniors, we went to lunch at the jade factory - this was one stop I had been waiting for. After another yummy Chinese lunch we hit the jade store hard - boy did we. I got my new jade bracelet to replace my broken one and it is gorgeous. Everyone ended up with some jade momentos. We headed to Old Beijing to see the hutongs but stopped for some photos of The Bird's Nest and Water Cube along the way. Once at the hutongs we visited a hutong family who has lived in this house over 4 generations. You cannot imagine the current day existance of this historic way of living. We enjoyed asking questions about daily life in the hutongs and they enjoyed askingx us about life in the USA. After our family visit we visited the dru'm tower in Old Beijing and saw the drum ceremony - it was a wonderful show even though we had to climb more stairs to get to the top of the drum tower to see it. From here we took a rickshaw ride through Old Beijing and took it the lifestyle and history of this community, just fascinating. At last we went to the Bell Tower for a traditional tea ceremony in the Bell Tower tea room. It was an enjoyable and yummy experience for us tea drinkers. We ended up back at the hotel right before 7:00 pm tired from our busy, busy day - but certainly a memorable one!
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