Beijing -- Down the Great Wall of China

So, we'd made it to the "top" of the wall!!! We'd taken a rest, enjoyed the views, and taken some pictures....
 Now it was time to head back down.....

There were vendors spread out all along the wall selling all kinds of Great Wall wares!
This guy was selling etchings of sorts of different scenes on the wall.

 

If you bought one, he'd tap your name and the date onto the tile. 

One last family picture at the top :)
Had a cute little photobomber in there, didn't we!! 

My favorite pic of us on the wall!!!
Maybe, even of the whole trip!! 

Remember when I mentioned we were on the STEEP side?!?!?!
These two pics do a good job showing just HOW steep!!
Thankfully, it wasn't that steep the whole way...just in sections.

Can you believe they actually run a marathon on the wall?? On those steps and slopes??? 

A couple of my faves of Rodney

 

There's something specific I want you to notice in this picture.....
See the trashcan (center bottom of the pic)?? They were all along the wall. Now, my question is-- now would you like that job??? Gathering up the trashbags from the trashcans.... having to walk that stretch of wall every day??

Proof we both made it back down safely!

 

It was then time for a buffet lunch at the coffee shop upstairs and some souvenir shopping downstairs. 

If our lunch hadn't already been arranged, we could have eaten at one of the places in the village, like California Beef Noodle King USA or KFC! There was also a Subway and a couple of Chinese places.

Yes, KFC as well as McDonald's are quite prevalent in China. Interesting thing is--- the Chinese prefer KFC over McDonald's! For one reason, McD's puts pickles on their burgers and Chinese tend not to care for pickles!! Also, KFC offers some Chinese dishes, along with rice, and porridge for breakfast!

If you are surprised McDonald's, KFC, and Subway are in China, would you believe we also saw Pizza Hut, Haagen Dazs, Starbucks, and Dairy Queen?? In Shanghai, we even saw Papa John's Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Hershey's!!!

But, back to the wall.....
So, we ate our lunch, bought our souvenirs, then reloaded the bus headed for another stop...

As we rode along, we passed another area to visit the wall....

 

 

We could now mark the Great Wall of China off our life Bucket List!!
Even as I type this and look at my own pictures, I can hardly believe we actually saw it with our own eyes!!

Beijing -- Up the Great Wall of China

So, we're riding along in the bus admiring the countryside.... then we realize we are seeing patches of snow on the ground, then---- there it is----

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!

The first sections of the wall were built in the 7th century using sticky rice, egg whites, leaves and mud as the "glue"! The Beijing section is now about 600 years old.

Badaling was our destination...

The gate to the parking area 

Badaling 'village' with shops and food places. 

We believe these are depictions of different rulers and, of course, with Rodney--- life imitates art!

 

National Park of China 

We were so excited to be here!!!
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined I would get to see the Great Wall for myself!!!

Under the wall.... 

...through the gate... 

...and now to make a choice-- which way to go??
The North Side was said to be the not-so-steep side. (We had no idea about the Cable Cars!)
The South Side is the 'steep' side. ("Hero Stele" is evidently a marker in honor of Chairman Mao, but, I don't remember seeing it.)
We went left....yes, the steep side....
 the path less traveled....
Turns out, as steep as some of the places were (pics in next post), we actually chose wisely. The ones who took the other way said it wasn't steep, but a constant steady incline that actually gets real annoying real fast!

Looking back at the not-so-steep section 

Here we are-- "stepping on great wall"!! 

Now, time to walk on that wall!!!
The most annoying thing is I had developed a headache during the bus ride. I don't know if it was the altitude or what, but it developed into a real pain! I felt like the right side of my head was going to split down the middle, so I took my own pace and let them go on.

The wall is on average sixteen feet wide and sixteen feet tall, and almost 5500 miles long which would take about three years to walk the entire thing! It crosses thirteen provinces and ten cities.

Rodney was looking back to check on me....
Yep, I'm still here! 

Inside one of the watchtowers... 

YAY!! Headache and all I made it to the 'top'!!!!
Now.... to head back down......
(More pics to come!!)

Beijing -- Jade Factory

A lovely sunrise for very exciting day!!!
We were off to "step on Great Wall"!!!!
But, first....a stop at a Jade Factory. 

No, this isn't the Jade Factory, just a really cool building.... 

THIS is the Jade Factory... 

Jade fountain and wall art 

Solid jade ship 

Working on a small jade piece 

Our guide explaining the difference between jade and jadeite. If you want a piece of jade jewelry, make sure its jadeite, as jadeite is stronger than jade. 

The steps of making a Family Ball... begins with a block of jade, which is rounded into a ball. Each layer is then carved from the outside, one layer for each generation. The most layers carved has been five. 

More solid jade creatures

Lucky Frog 

An Urn

After our time to look and shop, we were off to the wall!!!!
Along the way, we started seeing snow!!! 

They'd had a pretty big snowfall a few days earlier and the Chinese soldiers were out shoveling.