March 24, 2013 Beijing, China

Up early again and had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Our guide and driver were outside and we loaded up the van and off we went to see the Great Wall. Since we visited the Temple of Heaven yesterday we had extra time today. Our guide took us to a silk factory where we were shown how silk is made and then of course visited the factory where they had pillows, beautiful duvet covers for beds and then we saw the rugs and all the clothing. Several of our group bought things here. They really were beautiful.

 lobby of hotel

 

The drive to the wall was about an hour and a half through the beautiful countryside and we opted to have lunch first before climbing the Wall. We had a very nice Chinese lunch at Xin Shuang Quan Restaurant. Our guide chose lots of dishes for us to try. We actually may have enjoyed this place as much or more than the Duck dinner. It was more “homestyle” Chinese food. Pineapple chicken, the best green beans we have ever had (tasted chargrilled and almost like steak), pork, beef and chicken dishes and an eggplant dish that had tons of flavor.

 



Stuffed we continued the drive to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It has a cable car that takes you up to where you walk on the wall. It had snowed recently and some ice and old snow were still around.

We spent a lot of time here walking and taking in the breathtaking scenery. Here is another place where a picture can’t do justice to what you see. The wall goes on forever. Today was supposed to be cold and windy so we all bundled up. It turned out to be the best day there. Warm and sunny and no wind! Perfect day! Of course there were vendors all up and down the steps selling things.

 

 

  

 

 

our guide and driver



So it was time to head to the airport for our evening flight to Hong Kong. We were there plenty early and we all wandered and grabbed some food. Since Hong Kong uses different money than mainland China we had to spend what we had left over. (ice cream for us)

We arrived late at night and our driver and guide were there to pick us up and take us to the hotel. After the cold in Shanghai and Beijing we were pleased that it was warm and humid in Hong Kong. We stayed at the Salsbury YMCA Hotel. Not as nice as the one in Shanghai. (at least ours wasn’t…the carpet was filthy!) They did have a better breakfast spread there however.