We had to drive about an hour and a half, but made a pit stop on the way - a quick visit to Starbucks! To our surprise, it is almost identical to the United States. None of us actually got any coffee, we just picked up some neat souvenir mugs!
We drove deep into the rural area outside of Beijing, and up into the mountains before arriving at the Great Wall. As we stepped out of the van, a steady snow started falling. Our plans were to take the ski lift up and tobaggan sled down, but it was closed do to icy conditions! Instead, we took a cable car up. We got a work out walking to the cable cars though - straight up hill for a good 15 minute walk....in the snow!
We walked up the HUGE stairs to get onto the wall. It was beautiful in the snow, but the visibility wasn't great! We had hoped to do some walking/climbing but it was just too slippery! Instead, we took several pictures and played it safe by just hanging out right outside the wall.
Mom and I wore our matching Auburn shirts today, and took off our coats and outer layers to make sure we could say War Eagle from the Great Wall of China! Such a fun memory!
We had one adventurous soul in our group! Will climbed for about 45 minutes, and got some amazing pictures! (I'll add some of them later!)
After the long hike down the mountain, we headed back to the van and ate lunch just a few minutes down the road. We ordered spicy beef, fish, pancake bread, sweet potatoes, spicy green beans, fried rice and broccoli! It was delicious - but it was hot hot hot! Spicy here is different from spicy at home - in a tongue numbing kinda way! Even so, it was amazing!!!
We drove the hour and a half back to the hotel, and then headed out on a little girls shopping trip with Sarah Good! The 3 of us braved the Beijing streets without a guide! We went back to the little shopping area that our Guide, Flora, showed us the night before. We were able to purchase a few small gifts, but it was quite the experience. People are just pushy and in your face. You cant even look at things without the store or booth owners yellling the only few English words they know! We heard a lot of "Hello! (or Hallow as they say it!) Panda Hat?" We got what we needed, and headed back to the hotel!
We ended the night with a little dinner at the hotel and packing! We are flying to Nanning tomorrow! We meet our guide in the lobby at 8:40am to head to the airport!
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