Day 4 - Beijing - Great Wall ,Ming Tombs and Jade Factory

Joe back again for round two as we actually managed to sleep past 4:00am and we're running a tad late. We need to have our bags packed and out of the room by 8:30 am and down to the lobby by 10:30 to go to the Airport. Today we leave for ChongQing and to get Sydney either today or tomorrow...we are SO excited as is everyone else knowing we are on our way to the REAL reason we are here!!!

This day in recent history, we drove on out to a jade factory. Little did I know, but in addition to pearls, silk, and $1 Rolex watches, another major export here is jade. They make just about anything that you can imagine out of it.The pieces are all absolutely exquisite. Lions, Tigers, Bears, Coffee tables, jewelry and just about anything else that you can imagine. There is however one problem with jade - It can be really expensive depending on what you buy, what type of Jade and how broke you would like to become. This is the first place that we went to where all of the prices were in US dollars. The other dads and I had gotten really used to dividing evrything by 8. If it's 800 Chinese Yuan, you divide by 8 and it works out to $100. We started looking around and saw 1200, 1400, etc... , did some mental math and most of us were like, wow, great deal!!! That's when one of us noticed the dollar sign as opposed to the Yuan sign. The word quickly spread across to male ranks to find your wife and get her out of the store. Too late. The women all had little shopping baskets and were on their way. We came across a very nice coffee table where some of the boys decided to rest. A casual glance at the price tag stated that the table and chairs cost about $14,000 USD. Wow, that's pretty expensive. I had to see what it felt like to sit at a $14K rock table. It was then that one of the kids noticed that we had misread the pricetag. Yes folks, $146,000 for a jade patio set.
Most of us were able to make it our with minimal damage to our credit scores. After this was a little 30 minute bus ride to the Great Wall of China. This thing is amazing and for most in our tour group, was the main thing that they wanted to see. Do you remember me saying that it was cold yesterday? Apparently it wasn't because cold was re-defined here. It had to be 15 degrees colder here (well outside of town and 300 or so meters higher.
We stopped for a group photo at the base of the wall and then we were set free to climb and climb some of us did. There is no such thing as the Americans with Disabilities act here so unfortunately, the Great Escaltor or Elevator of China was never an option that was really thought of here. There are something like 3500 steps between bottom and the very tippy top.
We're not in the best of shape and I think that we really showed it today. AM only braved a part of the wall and then slowly went back down the steps, careful not to break her neck on the way... to do more shopping!
There are signs all over the place on the way up that say " No Smoking". In my opinion, these signs were completely not required as there was no way that I could even breath let alone, think of lighting up a cigar or cigarette. After reaching the first station which was what we though was as high as we could go, we quickly discovered that yes, you could go higher (the "I climbed the Great Wall certificates are located at the first station). OK, it's there so I'll climb it. . Bad idea (actually, in hindsight, really good idea). The views from up above are amazing. Also, once you decide to go past the first station, the crowds die down quickly (literally) and you can go up at a decent pace. Upon reaching the second level though, I had had enough. I estimate about 2250 out of the 3500 steps had been taken and that's good enough for me. Again, te views are fantastic. It was a bit colder and windier up there, but well worth the exercise.
After a short recovery period, we visited a Friendship Store(AKA - local tourist trap) where they make Cloissone(sp?)items. Very cool stuff but wow, could they try to take more money from you? Also had lunch here and tried some some stuff called Fire Water at our guides suggestion....56% alcohol(112 proof) and several horrible faces later...it went down...ooohhh weeee that stuff tasted like Nail Polish remover!! Any guess as to what lunch was??? - That's right, Chinese food again. They did mix it up a little bit and included the good old American staple of french fries. Not a bad little lunch.
Next stop was the Ming Tombs. We visited a section that had about 40 or so statues of animals (no old dead guys at this stop) that were put there to honor the emperors. Not the most exciting place in the dead of winter but I did see pictures of what it looks like in the spring and it is very beautiful. Worth stopping by.

A traffic filled ride back to the hotel and then out for Dinner at a Dhi(pronounced Die I guess) restaurant-they had dancing and entertainment, but the food here left a bit to be desired and then back to the hotel for a couple of drinks and then re-packing to head to ChongQing. Only about 36 more hours until Sydney. Woo hoo.

Talk to y'all later
Joe and AM.