The Great Wall and Forbidden City

Today was a wonderful day. We started the day with a great buffet breakfast. It was definately westernized, but still had a variety of the "guess-what-I-am" type of foods. We then met our tour group at 8:30 to start the day. We started at Tian An Men Sqare then walked over to the Forbidden City. It was so cool to see all that history and learn about what occurred in these places. We will definately be renting "The Last Emperor" when we get home. I should have done more reading on Chinese history before this trip. There was alot of walking this morning as the Forbidden City is huge. It is very beautiful though, so it was all worth it. Everyone here stares at us and wants to take pictures of us. Not sure why? Our guide said it was because they have only seen foreigners on TV and not in person. Susie was pulled into a few of the pictures. The Chinese people are very forward and they would just come and grab Susie out of our group and drag her over to their group for a picture. Very funny. Next we headed to lunch and a tour of a factory that makes copper vases, bowlss etc. It was very cool to see all this stuff hand made. We got Maeve a little pig (she was born in the year of the pig) and picked up some other souvenirs. The lunch was very good and very traditional Chinese. You can see one of our selections in the pictures below. We were told to chew very good because the fish had many bones in it. I am still getting used to the food here. I love Chinese food, but this is very different than Chinese food in the States. It has all been good though and we are having a blast trying all the new items.

After lunch we headed to the Great Wall. What an amazing site. I feel like this was half the reason I wanted to come to China, just to climb the Great Wall. It was well worth it. We got lots of pictures. Susie dragged me all the way to the top. It is so much steeper than it looks in pictures. Needless to say, my legs are like jello right now! We got some cool gifts for the boys at the Great Wall! Tonight we are off to dinner with some families from our group. We have met some amazing families and it is neat to hear everyone's stories about what led them to adopt. A few of the families are on their second trip and have their first daughters with them. Many of the families have older children (10-17 years) and they are here too.

Tomorrow we are off to Nanning. We have to be ready by 4:00am. YIKES!! We have a bit of a rest day once we arrive. We will get Maeve on Monday and can't wait!! Enjoy the pictures. Believe it or not, the picture of the "urinal" is actually a ladies sqatty potty. It lays flat on floor. Public restrooms just aren't the same here. Another adventerous experience of Asia!!