In Beijing! I'm not quite sure what I think about the city. It's hard to be in China and not think politics and I don't share my political views here (much). The parts we've seen are of a very modern city, exquisitely maintained roadways and gardens, huge buildings, lots of shopping. The airport was humongous and everything is new, new, new (including the cars, I haven't seen anything older than a 2005 model except a few vans). It's interesting to think about the recent huge changes that have happened here...
Today we took a private tour to the Ming Tombs, Jade Factory, and the Great Wall. The Ming Tombs are amazing, I wasn't prepared for anything so old and detailed. It's about 600 years old and since the USA is such a baby country in terms of age, I was awed. And Jade is a pretty cool stone (didn't buy any though). The Great Wall was well, great! I'm not sure the age of the part we were on but since it was started 3000 years ago, I'm assuming we were walking on workmanship several hundreds years old. There was some huffing and puffing climbing the steps but it was a lot of fun. I plan to post lots of pictures when I get home.
Speaking of home, I'm kinda ready to be there now. I'm not sure what the plan is tomorrow (Thursday. Maybe shopping? I haven't bought anything!). Our flights land around 9:30pm EST time on Friday and I'm so not looking forward to another 15 hour plane ride. But I really miss the kids (going to call home in a few minutes) and it'll be nice to be home again.
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