Monday, July 11, 2016
Tour day 4 of 15. Beijing with Leo. Woke too early and couldn't sleep so I went to the gym to practice tai chi warmups and weightlifting. Breakfast buffet at Marriott Beijing City Wall. We drove for about 80 minutes to the Ming Tombs. We entered a grand, red archway before continuing down a paved path past 36 grand marble statues and through a cicada-filled forest. We then drove to Run-Ze Jade Garden where tour guide Maggie walked us through the gallery which also included silk embroidery paintings and other kinds of art and craft. We learned about different kinds of jade and jadeite. We ended at the huge jade gallery showroom where we could purchase fine jade and the others did a bit of shopping. Afterwards we went upstairs for another 11-course Chinese food lunch feast. Back in the bus and another long drive across two mountains to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. This section is further away and consequently less visited, and I thought that the longer drive was very much worth having virtually no pressing crowds as can happen at the closer section. We rode a gondola to the base of the wall then further climbed many stairs to reach the top of the wall. At times I didn't see anyone nearby in either direction on the wall, and this was my favorite thing of this visit. We spent over an hour on the wall. It started out sunny and hot—maybe 100 degrees—then became overcast and cooler—maybe 85 degrees—with rare, short breezes. The kids ran ahead several towers so Lani retrieved them before they had gone too far. Dad made it to the top of the wall but declined to visit multiple towers due to distance and difficulty for him. I lost count of how many I had visited—maybe four? We drove back to Beijing in the bus and dined on Chinese food at a restaurant (Da something? Men) which included a too-loud show with talented, expert performers: a costumed martial artist (staff), a flautist playing lots of different kinds of wind instruments, a basketball spinner who as part of his act spun basketballs on guests' fingers, and a ribbon dancer who also sang. Back to the hotel. To bed. Number of steps walked = 15,612. Weather today was 99 degrees Fahrenheit, clear with a bit of haze, and very humid.