Great Wall... still great!

We had an amazing day on the Great Wall at Mutianyu last week! When we arrived at the airport in Beijing and found our guide, he suggested that we go right to the Wall even though our itinerary was planned differently. It was such a beautiful clear day... definitely a good call to spend it where the view matters! We had it nearly to ourselves, which made it even better!









The afternoon sunlight on the distant mountains was lovely.


Our kids with the "sleeping dragon" of the Great Wall of China snaking behind them.

They're Off!

Scott left this morning to take Pa and Nannie and Uncle Ken and Aunt Nadine to Beijing! So thankful for the sunshine that is predicted there this week. Today they will go to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tomorrow, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and the Olympic venues... more to come on Wedesday.

Seth took this view of the Forbidden City from up above last month on his seventh grade trip to Beijing. It was taken in Jingshan Park... a place I haven't been, but Scott's parents and Ken and Nadine will get to go to this week, and maybe take a similar picture. :-)

On the Water at the Summer Palace

I've not yet posted many of the photos I'd hoped to from Shann and Sarah's visit. These pictures are from our late afternoon boat ride around the lake at the Summer Palace. The sun was slowly setting, so the lighting is interesting in this group of pictures... depending on which direction the sun was coming from in each photo. It was was a lovely, relaxing end to our busy day of sightseeing. I've enjoyed reliving this hour on the lake as I've put this post together.

Morning Activities

The Temple of Heaven is situated on a very large park area in the city of Beijing. Many locals buy yearly passes so that they can use the park area regularly. With a mandatory early retirement age in China, there are many older people out and about enjoying the morning together as they engage in various activities. We peeked into their world for a bit as we strolled toward the historic buildings in the Temple of Heaven grounds.

Shann tries to get a picture of what's going on it the middle of this circle of folks.

Shann and Sarah joined right in with this group of dancers!

Great Wall

I intended to do a post of the "best of Beijing" pictures, but there are just so many... so this is a Great Wall only post. :-) We went to a section I had not been on before, Mutianyu. It is a bit farther out of the city, but it was so worth the extra drive time because it was not a bit crowded. The day was a bit hazy, but we could still see lots of the wall, extending in both directions. We had a pretty strenuous climb to get to the wall, but once we were on it, we were able to walk on more gently sloping sections and see quite a bit. The Great Wall never fails to impress! See how few people were on the Wall when we were there... what a treat not to be climbing elbow to elbow with a crowd.

Sarah and I wore our coordinating t-shirts this day... we joked that it would help us "blend in." Not sure if this is possible for us in a country of black haired, black eyed people. :-)

We took this slide down to the bottom after our climb... so fun! Each little car could be individually controlled by a lever, to make your speed up or slow down. It was a pretty long ride, six or seven minutes to the bottom.

Olympic Park

We managed to squeeze in a walk through Olympic Park on our way to the airport as we were leaving Beijing on Saturday morning... the eight of us and about five hundred Chinese people were happily exploring the grounds well before 9 o'clock in the morning!

We all loved these little light posts around Olympic Park, which look like minature Bird's Nests!

The area around the Water Cube has some neat sculptures... this picture is notable, though, because it shows that Caleb is officially taller than me, after threatening to be for quite some time!