Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and the Great Wall

Today was a really busy day! Our guide picked us up at 9am and we were off.

We started the day off at Tiananmen Square. First thing I noticed was the scale. This place was huge and it set the tone for the day. All three stops I can remember thinking "I can't believe how big this place is". I was surprised how busy the square was. The high today was 30 degrees, so it was no doubt colder than that when we were there. Our guide said it was not even comparable to how much more crowded it is during the summer months. It was also here at the square that I noticed that no matter how cool the tourist attraction was, there was always time to stare at the white couple :) There were other white people there (though very, very few) so I don't know if it was like "hey, look at the all the white people" or "hey, look at those big white people". Nonetheless, it wasn't offensive or anything, it was fun to just smile at them. Starting tomorrow it will be something like "hey, look at those big white people with that cute little Asian boy" :)

After Tiananmen Square, it was across the street to the Forbidden City. Walking through gate after gate, I just couldn't believe the size of the place. Furthermore, I couldn't picture how on earth it was built over 600 years ago without modern machinery. It was around this point that I began to realize how cool it is to have a civilization that dates back several thousand years. Our national treasures and cultural relics are a couple hundred years old at best. We have native American history past our own . . . but to see and hear about the kind of history here is China is just amazing.

Our last stop was the Great Wall. Another marvel. It was impressive, it was mind-boggling, and it was steep! We started the climb up to the top of the portion of the wall we were touring. When we reached the first tower our guide looked at his watch and said "it is 1:30pm, I will meet you at the van at 3:00pm". He wasn't having any part of the climb so we were on our own. It was fun. There are towers all along the wall. We'd climb to one and stop and sit and try to decide if we should keep going. The higher we went the less people we saw. Our competitive streak came out when neither of us wanted to be the one that said they needed to turn around so . . . we ended up climbing all the way to the top. It took us an hour to climb to the top, and 30 minutes to get down. We got to the van at 3:02pm. Our legs were quivering, our knees hurt, but we made it. I told Amy I didn't fly all the way to China and come all the way to the Great Wall to say that I only climbed part of it.

We got back to the hotel at 4:00pm. Amy had been talking about getting a massage in China for weeks, so we went to the hotel spa and both relaxed. It was well earned after the Great Wall. We went across the street and had Pizza Hut for dinner. A good old pepperoni pizza and we called it a day. Amy crashed fast, I'm headed that way after this post. The time change has treated us well. Not sure if we got lucky or if it takes a few days to really feel the effect.

Tomorrow is the big day! Tonight is the last night Samuel will ever spend without a family. Never again will he be alone. Tomorrow he will begin to see what it is like to be loved. No more forgotten birthdays. No more un-celebrated milestones. Tomorrow there will be one less orphan in the world. Samuel will be a Mangels.