The Great Wall

They weren't kidding when they called it The Great Wall because that's what it is…. a Great Big Long Wall!!!

 The past 2 weeks my parents and my aunt Lori were visiting us.  It was great to show them where we live, how the Chinese live, and then of course we had to see some new things together!

Bill and I have not been to Beijing in the past 8 months living here so we were more than willing to head there with visitors!   We spent 4 days there going and doing something pretty much every waking moment so when we got back to Suzhou on Sunday we needed a day of rest!

I'm going to eventually get around to posting all our Beijing pictures but for now here are some teasers of our journey to the wall.  We hired a guide who took us to the Mutianyu section of the great wall.   This section has been restored so it was pretty "modern" looking.   We rode a chairlift up and then were able to take a toboggan down.  

 I do not recommend going to the wall hung over - it was pretty painful climbing those steps feeling the way I did - but as my dad tells me - "brain fails, body suffers" and suffer I did!

We made it to the top!!! 

  Climbing the stairs!

 Mountains all around!   We lucked out as the weather was "clear" for us and we could actually see the scenery around us.

  Nurse Lori to the rescue!  A teenage girl had twisted her ankle and was screaming bloody murder so Auntie Lori rushed to the rescue and bandaged her foot up with another girls scarf.  It was her good deed for the day!

 Ready for the toboggan down!  Bill got yelled at by the guards to slow down on every curve - I was right behind him on his tail!  Weeeeeee

 Part of the fun was the bargaining with the vendors at the end.   I'm the only one who came home from the wall empty handed as I decided to take a pass on this hat.

 Bill purchased this one - however we think my dad looks pretty good in it!