Beijing... Day Two

Today has been another amazing day! We've really enjoyed our two days in Beijing and are so glad we chose to come early to get to spend some time here. We started off our day meeting up with another WACAP family who will also be adopting a child from Xi'an. Since we're with the same agency, we shared a guide and driver for today's touring. We enjoyed getting to know Michelle and her sister, Mary, (Michelle's husband stayed home to take care of their other two children) and since we'll be staying at the same hotels in Xi'an and Guangzhou, it was fun to spend a day with them before we get our girls. (Which, by the way, is tomorrow!!)

Our first stop was to the jade factory. It's owned by the Chinese government and was quite interesting to tour. There is a lot of tradition involving jade and it's a big business here. One of the traditions is for the husband's mother to give his new wife her jade bracelet and they are passed down from generation to generation. (Our guide has one, but thinks it's ugly and would love to get a new one, but can't because her soon to be mother-in-law would get pretty ticked off over that!) Rodney chose one for me that I'll keep until Sophia gets married and then I'll pass it on to her. It was completely overwhelming to even try to narrow it down to one bracelet, so I'm glad he took charge and picked one out. We'd probably still be there if I had to do it! That place was huge!

This woman carved Sophia's name in Chinese and English on the bottom of a small jade stamp for us.



Rodney thinks he found his twin.

 



After that, we headed to the Great Wall. WOW. Can I just say that again? WOW!!!!! One of the seven wonders of the world and we climbed it today! Pictures can say so much more than words, so I'm going to post several for you. It was beautiful and amazing... and freezing. Today was very windy and although it was sunny, we were freezing our patookies off! Once we got going though, it was such hard working climbing that I ended up taking off my hat and scarf and still being too hot. I think the climb down was even harder than the climb up, but it was so worth it!

View from the part of the wall we climbed, looking out across at another part of the wall.



Steep. Very, very steep.





Almost looks like they're running... they weren't.



Did I mention it was steep???

You can see the part of the wall that we climbed behind us in this picture.



Last but not least, care for an espresso anyone? Hopefully, not to be confused with the toilet!



We then went to the Cloissonne Factory. Cloissonne if French for enamel and it's where they make all kinds of beautiful vases, jewelry, trinkets, etc. First, they took us thru and showed us how it's done (I'll never look at an enamel vase the same way again!) and then took us to this massively huge room hoping we would buy things. Honestly, it was just too overwhelming and I didn't end up buying anything, although it was all very beautiful.

Madeline, standing in front of a vase that took over a year to make. We decided not to buy it.

  On our way back to the hotel, our driver took us by a very famous landmark. Anybody recognize this?

How very cool is this?

Madeline was konked out by 7:30 tonight. I would worry that she wouldn't sleep thru the night, but we have to be up at 4:30 am to start our journey to Xi'an. We are so excited and can hardly wait to meet little Sophia tomorrow afternoon! PLEASE keep us in your prayers. We'll post again as soon as we're able... with pictures of our new daughter!

Till next time,

Karee