Day 1: The Great Wall

After getting up really early this AM and going out in the snow for a little while, we had breakfast in our hotel around 6:00.  They had a big buffet out with all kinds of food including sushi, dried meats, eggs, fruit, bacon, breads, baked beans, soups, fried rice, cereals and lots more.  Olivia had some sushi, dragon fruit, melon, dumplings and tomato juice.  She is loving all the food here!  Olivia nad Brian are definitely in their element as far as the food goes. 

It was still snowing this morning when our guide picked us up to take us to the Great Wall.  We traveled about an 1 1/2 to the section of the Great Wall that was built by the Ming dynasty.  It has a cable car that takes you up to the top of the wall and then a tobaggan slide down, but the slide was closed today because of the snow.  Our guide, Angela, told us this is a section of the Great Wall that many locals prefer to visit.  It was about 30 degrees there and the wall had icy patches so we had to be careful when walking.  Some parts of the wall were just too slippery to try walking on and for it being so cold and wet out there were actually still a lot of people there today.

The Great Wall was beautiful with all the snow!  Our guide told us it is very unuusal for Beijing to be this cold already and for the first snow of the season to be this early as well.  I love that Olivia got to experience the Great Wall in the snow even though it was super cold up there with all the wind too!

After visiting the Great Wall, we went to a local Chinese resaurant for lunch.  Olivia tried some roasted duck, dumplings, sweet and sour pork, spicy potatoes, white rice and a mushroom chicken dish that I already forgot the name.  We had hot water to drink as well since that is fairly common here.  Even though the water was plain, it was very good--probably because it was so cold out that anything hot to drink was nice. :)

It is very interesting being out and about all day and then trying to find a "western" style bathroom.  The Great Wall had one western style toilet, but all the rest were the squatty potty type.  At most places you have to bring your own toilet paper with you too.  At the restaurant they only had a squatty potty--Olivia was a bit anxious about using it but if you have to go bad enough you really don't care anymore. :)

For dinner tonight we ordered a pepperoni pizza (very adventurous I know, but after having more traditional Chinese food today it was nice to have something familiar) and it was SO good!  We sat around on the floor in our hotel room and ate our pizza with our bottled water that we put little Crystal Light packs in for a change of pace.  

Tomorrow morning we fly out of Beijing and head to Heidi's province of Guangxi.  Only a couple more days until we meet Heidi!!!