Day 2 in Beijing

Day 2--Tuesday, April 10

 Olympic National Stadium The "Bird's Nest".

 Cost $457 million dollars to construct.  At one point they stopped construction of it.  They were using too much of the world's steel supply.

 Because Beijing is so big, and has limited space for new constructions, the buildings are unique.

 Government shopping-Jade Factory.  Gilberto and I each got small pendants.

 Huge Jade carvings.  You could buy it, or a house.  HA!

 The Ming Tombs--Sacred Way.  There are 13 emperors circle-buried in the basin under Tianshou Mountain.  Darren told us about how an emperor was buried with his 20+ concubines, that were buried alive, standing up. I guess to greet him in the afterlife?  Sacred Way has 24 great stone animals and 12 ministers, each sculpted with a whole piece of stone.

 You're not supposed to climb the animals, but Darren told us we could try.  Some of them were huge.

 The Great Wall--Mutiyanu Peaks.  The Great Wall is a symbol of the dauntlessly indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation and a crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese people in ancient times.  Or at least that is what my souvenir book says!

 Let me tell you...the wall kicked my ASS!!!  It is tough.  The very beginning of the path was by far the worst.  Because many people start there, the steps were very worn, steep, and uneven.  There were even points where the steps were so big, I couldn't make it up without using the railing to pull myself up.  I didn't take too many pictures and no video or panoramic shots! (I regret that!)  I want to say it's because I was "in the moment".  But really I needed one hand on railing and other hand to hold my small towel to wipe the sweat streaming from my face!  (No makeup on the wall climb day!)  So, Berto took most of the pictures.

 There were definitely moments that I didn't think I was going to make it.  We had about two hours to finish the path.  I really didn't want to be the last of our group, so that thought was in the back of my mind.  You can see people going back down.

 There are lots of people who we saw going back down without finishing.  And that's why the beginning part is so worn down.  I saw some girls with heels on!  I mean....really?!

 I really was taking in the moment here.  It was an amazing view!

 So happy to have had this fantastic experience!

The Wall stretches for 3,946 miles!!!  Holy!

 I haven't mentioned so far, but our whole trip had incredible weather.  We were so lucky.  On this day especially, there was a cool breeze.  There was one point later in the day that it rained for a few minutes, but it was while we were on the bus.  Other than that, perfect vacation weather.

 Very steep areas.  Straight down.  By this point my legs had a slight shake to them.

 Berto did great cheering me on.

 The end of the path was mostly all steps going down.  So that was a lot easier.  By this point, we were done.  This is a look back and I spotted some of our new friends from our group.  Yea, we weren't last!

 I was trying to gets artsy taking this pic.  With the flowers in the front.  HA!

 Done!  I'm not sure why Berto was doing jazz hands here.  HA!  I love this picture!!

 Government shopping--Beijing Pearl Market.  I've never been one to like pearls but thought the black pearls were really pretty.  They showed me a necklace and I liked it until they showed me the next quality up!  Ended up getting a necklace, ring and small earrings, they are a beautiful purple color.

 Dim sum dinner.  By this point we liked sitting with the only other 2 couples that were drinking beer, too.  (And the Japanese lady who was our guide until we got to China.)  HA!  After climbing the Wall, we really enjoyed some cold beer!  In this picture you can see the little girl on the trip, named Luna. She was very well behaved and pretty quiet.  The parents took turns holding her the whole trip in a sling.  I only saw her walk a little bit once!

Our Chinese tour guide, Darren!  He was awesome!  He could seriously answer any question.

So, day 2 was a looooooong day.  We headed out at about 6 am, and didn't get back to the hotel until 9 pm.  Once we got back, we had an optional massage scheduled. Full body acupressure work for 2 hours for $35, tip included!  WHAT?!  How can you pass that up? So, we hurried to shower and get our scratchies (pj's) on.  The two young Chinese girls came to our room, and worked on both of us on our bed/box spring.

They started off with a hot soak in a plastic bag for our feet.  It was brownish in color and smelled like tea.  They did some serious reflexology work in our feet.  Chinese acupressure massage is also called Tui na and Zhi ya which is pulling, stretching, kneading, pressing and pinching. Oh, and hitting!  Ha, they were hitting and slapping us around! The work in the feet and calves especially felt awesome after the long day.  But there were definite times where it was painful!  It was about 85% wonderful and 15% painful.  Poor Gilberto thinks it was 15% wonderful and 85% painful.  He was not a fan.

The setting was not relaxing.  We did have the tv on, and the girls were talking to each other almost non stop.  So Gilbert and I were talking too.  Then we switched to talking in Spanish to see if they noticed.  What was funny was that Darren had told us, relax...fall asleep.  They'll just continue with the massage.  There is NO way anyone could sleep through that!  We even ended up getting some bruises!  By the next day my legs were sore and I wasn't sure if it was more from the Wall or the massage!

We traveled to Beijing and got beat up by small Chinese girls!  J/K  =)