Last day in Beijing

"Gimme back that fillet-a-fish,......."
























The Great Wall

The Great Wall again

The Empress' Summer Palace

The marble boat at the Summer Palace

Today was a marathon! First came the Great Wall of China. You're driving along past many older homes and industrial sections of town then all of the sudden, these MAMMOTH sized mountains appear! We parked and began our ascent up one of the passes on the Wall. STEEP is all I have to say! The steps themselves were uneven from centuries of wear and tear, unequal in height, and very narrow in places. It made for some tricky manuvering. The wall was begun in the 700 B.C. era and connected around the 200 B.C. era. It was built to keep the enemy Mongolians out of China. It was amazing to actually walk upon a structure that dated back over 2000 years!

The next stop was a factory/restuarant. Here, the factory cranked out VERY nice peices of painted copper vases and such and was a pretty nice restuarant. Check out the pictures of lunch. Over here it is common for the heads of the fish and chicken to be kept on even after cooking the food. I kept waiting for this catfish to lift its head and sing, "Give me back that fillet o' fish, give me that fish..."

Last stop was the Summer Palace, which is even more expansive than the Forbidden City. Absolutely beautiful! Again, countless painted structures and fantastic trees, some over 300 years old!

Tomorrow we have our "Gotcha Day"! We finally meet Julianne (Ting Ting) and have her in our arms! All of the waiting and planning has come down to less than 24 hours!!