China - Days 12 and 13

Standing in the parking garage at the base of the Great Wall, our friend, Jordan, asks us whether we want to take the cable car up to the wall or walk up.  "It's about 20 minutes in the cable car and an hour to walk up."  We chose to walk. An hour? That's not bad.....

What he didn't tell us was that the walk was more than 4000 steps pretty much straight up.  Luckily it was cold outside because we were soon quite warm. Although strenuous the sight was amazing.  Once we got to the Wall the walking was quite as bad. The Wall itself stretches  for more than 13,000 miles and was started over 2000 years ago.  Only 3-4 sections are open to the public. Inside one of e fire towers was a piece of material in a wooden frame for visitors to sign. #positivelywareham is now on the Great Wall!  I think for all of us but definitely me, being there was a bucket list moment. Something that we never really expected we would do.

We started on the Wall at fire tower 10, walked over to tower 14 and then back to 6. Why back to 6? Of course, to take the tobaggon down the mountain.  It looked like the luge on a metal track.  You pulled on the stick to slow down and pushed it to the front to speed up.  It was great fun!

We did some shopping and ate lunch in the small town at the base of the Wall and then got back in the car to go to the Olympic village. The summer Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008 and they have just been named the city for the Winter Olympics in 2022.

We walked around the Olympic park next to the Bird's Nest Stadium and went into the Water Cube where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals.  As we sat in the swimming pool area we learned that it would be converted to the curling courts in 2022.

Dinner out (fish head soup and fried doughnuts specialties) and a quick stop at the supermarket, WuMart, on the way back to the residence. The supermarket was crazy buys - just like right before Christmas!

Day 13

Our final morning - breakfast, packing, weighing our bags, rearranging, weighing again! How did we buy this much? Then it is off to the airport! Goodbye, Beijing! It has been a wonderful experience with friendships made and many exchanges. A language difference which seemed insurmountable a few days ago is nothing now.  Thank you!