Today we visited the Great Wall of China at the Mutianyu area, a much more beautiful entrance than the more tourist entrance at Badaling. It was about an hour and a half drive from Beijing thru the fruit and vegetable farm land. Of course the wall was amazing with Maddie, Peter, Red and Carol being the most adventurous in terms of climbing. Maddie was approached by a group of young Chinese males who wanted their picture with her being a cute blond American (think Britney Spears) so I also got into the photo as security! The trick in arriving and leaving the site is to "run the gauntlet" of t-shirt shops and everything you could imagine to purchase down to the parking lot.We made a brief stop at a Cloisonne factory to see the process of making, baking and painting the beautiful things from bracelets to vases to plates. It was truly beautiful (but expensive!).
After resting for 30 minutes, we were off the Korean restaurant Billy and Jingyi had chosen as the wedding site. We had a 2 hour rehearsal, and the Chinese part of the ceremony will really be fun. We met John Yoder, the pastor who is actually from Maple Grove, Minnesota as well as Billy and Jingyi's friends. We then piled into the bus to go to the restaurant they had chosen for the bridal dinner. What an amazing array of food! There were about 25 people at the dinner and it was really fun to offer toasts, see Billy & Jingyi's photos and power point show. Speaking of the bus, this has really been the best way for us to travel - our guide and driver have been amazing getting us thru the ridiculous Beijing traffic, which is a jam at all hours of the day and night.
1 comment:
SOOO glad you were able to load the photos, they're great! The trip sounds amazing (except for the part about the i-phone). Ok, is Maddie blonde again???!!!!!
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