Day 2: Beijing

Today was an exciting day. We started out early again, and had breakfast at 6:00am. We met our guide Lifeng at 7:45.


Then we headed to the Great Wall. The morning was bustling with people going to work, a sea of thousands of people making their way through downtown Beijing.

We made our way to the northern outskirts of Beijing and visited a Jade market on our way. The jade market was very large and we were given instruction on the various qualities of jade and how jade is carved and polished. Jade is a very valueable stone in China. The color, tone, and density of jade also contribute to its value. We were told it would be a good idea to purchase a piece of Jade for Lindsey for good luck!





After the jade market, we headed further north to the Great Wall. We read that it would take 1000 steps to reach the top. Once we got there, we quickly found out there would be many more steps than that! It was literally like hiking a mountain. Lifeng told us that most families make it to a certain point and then turn around and come back down the mountain. Of course we thought we needed to go further to prove ourselves. So we began our climb and made it two levels higher. One problem we didn't bargain for was that meant we had to climb back down the mountain!! The view from the Great Wall was beautiful.


On our way back from the Great Wall, we stopped for lunch at a large government owned store. Once in the store, we were given a demonstration of how copper vases and artwork is made. It's all made by hand and is extremely detailed and intricate.



After lunch we headed back to the metropolitan area of Beijing and began our Ricksaw tour. Our Ricksaw tour took us through an old village just north of the modern part of the city.



We were able to go to a big market there and visited a kindergarten. The children sang us some songs. They were so adorable, we wanted to scoop them up.



After the visit to the kindergarten, we were able to meet a family who lives in the courtyard. They actually invited us into their house and explained how they lived. We were in amazement. Just when we thought we couldn't experience anything more intriguing, we went to the Chinese acrobat show. The show was amazing. The young men and women acrobats were extremely flexible, strong and talented.

Today was a day filled with culture, exercise, beauty, history and wonder. We can't thank our guide Lifeng more for taking us on this amazing journey.


Tomorrow we are going to meet Lindsey!!! We never thought we would actually come to this night, and we are so excited. We will fly out of Beijing to Hefei at 8:00 am tomorrow, then we will go right from the airport to the children's institute!!! We have her diaper bag packed, and we are ready. We're very nervous too, we hope we'll be great parents!!! We are almost a family of three!


See you tomorrow with our little daughter Lindsey!!!!!