We started this day with a plentiful and delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel. There were a lot of interesting fruits and foods to choose from. Mary tried this fruit that looked like a white pineapple with poppy seeds. It was called Fire Dragon fruit and it was very good. Everybody got their fill!

Julie met us at 8:00 AM for our all day tour of Beijing. We started out with a Hu Tong tour. The tour consists of us sitting in a rickshaw while the driver pedals us thru the Hu Tong area. We had two rickshaws. Don and Mary were in one and Cindy and Kim (our Hu Tong guide) were in the other. Hu Tong means a street that is no wider than 9 Meters from building to building. It is one of the older sections of Beijing and the design was brought in by the Mongolians when they took power in Beijing. We saw the famous bar area in the Hu Tong that flourished during the SARS incident because the seating was outdoors and the air would circulate better than indoor bars. Hu Tong housing is setup in a square with houses on each side and a central courtyard. We were invited into a family home of a retired couple. We were served tea, peanuts, and watermelon. The husband and wife have been married for 43 years and have lived in this home for 46 years. Before leaving, the lady of the house presented us with a gift of Christian medals with the Madonna on one side and Jesus on the other because Cindy and Mary shared the same religion with the woman (Sorry Judi).

Our next stop was the Beijing Jade Factory. We were given a tour that included the processing of raw stone into intricately designed pendants, statues, and other jewelry. We bought everything in the store and they were very sad to see us go. Don kept them amused the whole time …

Our next stop was the Great Wall of China (Badaling section). This is about an hour’s drive outside of Beijing. AMAZING doesn’t even begin to describe it and the pictures don’t do it justice. 3000 miles of wall were built in what has been explained as a “few years”. The only reason this could be accomplished was because the Teamsters or Mass Port Authorities were not involved. We hiked the steeper section of the wall which at times was so steep our noses were almost touching the wall in front of us. Some of the stairs had at least an 18 inch rise. The view from the wall is spectacular – the mountains and the valleys – indescribable!!!