Day 3 - Exhausting

Ok, so today we did something stupid. This goes beyond my forgetting to put on deoderant this morning. Steve and I hiked to the highest point of the Great Wall. I'm barely able to stay awake to type this. My legs were shaking all the way down the wall. It was reminiscent of helping Lauren and Kim move a few weeks ago. So, tomorrow I shouldn't be able to walk. Sheehan will have to meet his handicapped mom.

Anyway, we got up today (me at 3:30 a.m. and Steve at 4 a.m.). We showered, did a Bible study together and then ate breakfast. YUM! Basically, the same as yesterday, but I so look forward to it every morning. I think that's why I got up at 3:30...jk. T

Today, we met the rest of our group. There are 7 couples total. They're pretty much from all over the country. Two couples are from Ohio, so we had something in common (Cincinnati and Valley City...near the Wilson's!). We drove with our tour guide to Tiananmen Square/Tomb of General Mao/Forbidden City. There were hundreds of people waiting in line to pay their respect to General Mao. His tomb is at Tiananmen Square. I don't remember the Chinese significance of T. Square, only what we saw with the students being shot in the 80's.

Tiananmen Square...

We crossed under the street to the Forbidden City. This is where the Emperors lived for many, many years, until (I think) 1911. Before 1912 nobody was allowed inside the Forbidden City. Now, it's open to the public. There are 9999.5 rooms in the Forbidden City. It was huge and a lot of it was under construction. A LOT of Beijing is under construction, as they're preparing for the 2008 Olympics.

Tiananmen Square/Way to Forbidden City

After the Forbidden City, we had lunch at a Peking duck restaurant and tried Peking duck. Steve was very fond of it, as he woofed down like 4 little pancake-fuls of duck. We sat around a table with our group and got to know each other better.

After lunch, we drove to the Great Wall. It was VERY hazy and foggy, as you can see from the photos. I think we climbed like 500 stairs or something. Coming down was almost as bad. On the way home from the Wall, which is about an hour drive outside of Beijing, we drove by the construction site for where they will host the 2008 Olympics.

Starting out...



On the way up...


Almost to the top...

We came back to our hotel, showered, since we sweated more than any time since our trip last fall to Louisiana and/or Lauren's move (remember I had no deoderant on) and then went to KFC for dinner.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Xi'an. We have to meet Anna, our guide, in the lobby downstairs at 8:30 a.m. Good night everyone! :-)...I guess it's Good Morning to you. :-)

And finally...just so you know what I have go through...la toilet.

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