The Belated Great Wall Post

 

That day seems like a blur now. The day before we got Abigail. But there are moments that I won't forget.

**Our guide gave us two choices at the Great Wall -- go to the right where looking up I saw a thick line of endless people climbing up a very steep incline (the challenging route, she called it -- evidently what the locals choose) or to the left -- much less crowded and less challenging. I don't have to tell you which one we chose.

**Because you see, the rise of the steps of the GW are very uneven -- one might rise an inch, the next a half a foot. And they are very worn and parts are missing in some places. As we went through the first tunnel, "Somebody needs to replace these steps!" Natalie yelled --which of course was followed by a history lesson by us.

**I didn't expect all of the steps going down in the dark tunnels before we ever started our ascent. My legs were already Jell-o before even going up.

**Needless to say, Natalie charged ahead on a mission, a couple of the other dads and one of their daughters with her. We stopped about halfway with several others in our group, okay maybe we stopped a third of the way up to the first tower only to hear Natalie at the top shouting, "Come on you, slowpokes." That was exactly not what I expected to hear at the GW.
**She tried to coax us up there with "I'm not coming down until you come up here." But we were definitely out of gas.

**As the few others in our group came down, so did Natalie. You'd think I would have many photos of Natalie's climb from my prime spot but as my luck goes that's when the batteries went dead. She climbed the wall to that first tower in the same amount of time it took me to change the batteries.

**Afterward we visited a Cloissoine Factory and ate a Chinese lunch next to it. Then off to a Jade Factory. We are buying keepsakes for Abigail like we did for Natalie.

**Our last stop at the emperor's Summer Palace was like nothing I have ever experienced. At first I tried to explain it to Natalie as like a busy day at Disney World. But you could multiply that times the largest number you could think of and not be close. I have never been squeezed through crowds like I was there while vendors blew loud whistles they tried to sell. It was all very surreal and hard to explain. And as Natalie put it, it 'freaked us out".

**To leave the last gate, we were pushed and shoved through only to find two street vendors on each side of the opening with blazing hot barrels selling sweet potatoes sitting on top. It's amazing that someone did not get burned. These are my memories of the Summer Palace.

**The other family who had been there before said, "It's not supposed to be like this." The guide explained that the tourist spots were busy because of the upcoming holiday May Day. Busy was definitely an understatement.

**Between all the sights, we sat in never-ending traffic an hour to two hours at each interval. The cars, bikes, tour buses here don't believe in using lanes and just cut each other off every minute or two with just inches between them. It's really heart stopping to watch.

**So we were worn out at the end of that day. Therefore, that's why this post was belated. We had to go back and prepare to fly out and receive our baby the next morning. We were drained and exhausted.

**But as you see we made it here to Nanchang and Abigail was placed happily in our arms!