What a day!

Early this morning, our group visited the Great Wall. Our guide must have his game plan down to a science, because he whisked us from place to place just before the crowds arrived. Which is why we started off for the Great Wall at 8:00 am. It was cloudy and cool - apparently unusual for Beijing - so the pictures are not very clear.

The steps are very steep in this area, and I felt nauseous at the first lookout point because it was like looking straight down. I thought I would fall off the stairs.

Our tour guide says that apart from "long wall", locals call it the "bloody wall" because human bones were used to make bricks. This part of the wall though, is only about 500 years old, and supposedly doesn't contain any human bones.
















Later, we went to a cloisonné factory. No wonder the Chinese are known for highly detailed work. It takes several days to prepare a piece - carving out and sticking on patterns in brass, painting it, firing and polishing. The question on everyone's mind was "how much do they get paid for this?"








We also saw the Summer Palace, and the marble boat on the lake there. The infamous Dragon Lady received both as birthday presents. Now that's a birthday present. I wonder how many people starved to death to make it happen. I didn't enjoy it as much as I would if I hadn't known that many people died just to make a pretty garden for one person.