Day 3 - Beijing: Jade Factory, Great Wall, Olympic Park, Acrobat Show

Today was go, go, go again!  We started off with a long drive out to the Great Wall, stopping at a jade factory along the way.  Very similar experience to the silk factory where there is a tour first and then fast-talking sales experience helping us 'pick out souvenirs.'   We learned, we admired, we purchased.

From there we headed to the Great Wall.  George explained the options:  The west side was very steep and very crowded because folks want to have bragging rights to say they climbed the steep part.  The east side was steep enough and much less crowded.  East it was!  He suggested 1.5 hours there, so we just walked up as far as we could get in half that time and turned around.  We met an extended family of 3 kids and 4 parents and we were taking each others photos.  Turns out they were from Folsom, CA!!!  Had to come all the way to China to meet them (for those of you reading this who did not know us then, we used to live in the town next to Folsom). 

We had another excellent lunch near the wall.  It was a huge tourist place but the food was very good.  We were feeling a bit like royalty at this point because George is taking care of everything.  He organizes our day, gets our tickets to all of the attractions, and preorders our food before we arrive at the restaurants.  He makes excellent choices, so it all works out very well. 

Hubs had mentioned he was interested in seeing the Bird Nest stadium from the 2008 Olympics, so we made a detour stop and popped out to take some photos there and of the Blue Cube swimming venue.  The Olympic park is huge and you could imagine the throngs of people moving about during that time, but apparently, they have not found a use for the Bird Nest since the Olympics. 

After that, we headed back toward our hotel but hit one traffic snag after another.  Our driver

could put any NY taxi driver to shame though the way he took backroads and navigated narrow feudal alleyways with oncoming traffic which were only really wide enough for 1-1/2 cars and filled with pedestrians and the ever-present cyclists.  After a quick stop in our hotel room to clean off a layer of Great Wall grime, we headed to a very entertaining acrobat show just 2 blocks from the hotel. 

Will be adding more photos to this post later but have some packing and organizing to do as we go off to Nanchang tomorrow where we will finally get to meet little Tamasyn!