my pink toes

We went to the Great Wall yesterday. It truly is amazing. I don't know if you can tell in the photo, but the wall goes on as far as the eye can see, at the peak of every ridge. Yes, I said the "peak". When the Chinese built it, they sure didn't spare any effort.

I was very glad to not be responsible for carrying bricks up the mountain - I took the chairlift up and down, and only hiked for a few watchtowers. It was 33 degrees celsius (about 92 F), so it's been HOT and humid. Thankfully there was a lovely breeze.

There weren't very many tourists, so we didn't feel crowded. It also made for good haggling with the vendors. I got some "I Climbed the Wall" T-shirts for my boys and had a good time joking with a vendor.

On the way back we went to a cloisonne factory. I didn't realize it's an ancient Chinese tradition. Paul brought me a teacup from there from a previous trip and it was fun to see the artists making them.

Today is a great "down" day. I'm enjoying uploading my photos, writing, and just taking it easy. On Sunday we're doing a marathon day to see the terracotta warriors in Xi'an. (The equivalent of leaving Seattle in the morning to attend a museum in Los Angeles and coming home the same day). So I'm resting up and taking it easy. After forking over two inches of cash for our upcoming tour, I could also use a low-budget day. And, the bank has frozen my card until they can verify during US business hours that it really is me getting all the cash in China. I hardly ever get cash at home, so I'm sure my current banking activity is raising all kinds of red flags.

Tomorrow will probably be Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven - we'll see.

Click here for a smaller set of photos with captions.