Beijing Day 3

Megan and I slept in until 7:30 this morning and got ready for breakfast. Pat and Miyah had already been down to breakfast, but Miyah has been eating so much on this trip, that they joined us again for breakfast. I don’t know why, but she’s hungry a half hour after we eat a meal. And it isn’t that she doesn’t like the food because she’s eaten quite well.
After being out in the damp, cold air, Miyah has a cough. She actually began coughing and gagging up phlegm on the way to the acrobat show yesterday and it ended up all over me and her (lovely). Please pray that her cough goes away. It isn’t easy for her to sleep when she has a bad cough.
We needed to do some shopping before we left for the Great Wall. We desperately needed warmer jackets and mittens. It was an incredibly windy day and I imagined the Wall would be bitter cold.
We found some little shops, and one shop owner in particular was quite earnest in finding us what we needed. She called for someone to bring her the smallest North Face jacket they had and what they came with was a boys jacket way too big for Miyah, but she insisted that it fit by rolling up the sleeves a few times. We didn’t’ have many options at that point and she was persuaded to sell it to us for $10. Megan and I also found really nice Columbia jackets for $15 each and some gloves and hats. We were outfitted for the Great Wall!
Our first stop was lunch. We had Peking Duck, Kung Pao Chicken, Spring Rolls, and other dishes served family style.
On the hour long bus ride we saw a few of the buildings being erected for the 2008 Olympics. The aquatics building is really interesting, but the National Stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies is incredible. It looks like a bird’s nest made of metal twigs. We also saw where the athletes will be housed. All of this construction has required blocks and blocks of temporary housing for the construction workers. They’re little shacks really.
When we finally reached the Wall, Miyah was so excited. While we climbed she said, "This is the greatest mountain in the whole world" and "Can you believe we’re in China?" So far her favorite thing about China is all the bus rides I think. She loves buses and we’re on one every day.
Pat was determined to get to the top, or at least high enough to get a Hero Card. He was disappointed to find they don’t have Hero Cards anymore, but he and Megan got a nice little plaque engraved that says they climbed the Great Wall on March 31, 2007.
Miyah and I only climbed a little way. Enough to get some photos and check out the beautiful views. The cherry blossoms were beautiful and it really wasn’t as cold as we thought it would be. We enjoyed walking around and stopping at the little shops and eating ice cream bars. Miyah got a Great Wall t-shirt with pandas on it and she’s worn it last night and today. She has definite clothing likes and dislikes and I’ve figured out she likes clothes with animals on them.
On the way home from the Great Wall Megan needed to use the restroom, so the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road for her to find a tree. Our guides were kind enough to take us to find a public toilet. There were new hutongs being built in this area. It’s interesting to see new buildings in this style of living. In the old hutongs, and I assume in these new hutongs (alley communities), many of the homes don’t have private toilets. We stopped in one of their public toilets to find that the squatty potties didn’t even have doors or stalls. I guess it was better than a tree.
In case you’ve never seen one, they’re pretty much a hole in the floor. Every one I’ve ever been in has had the strongest smell of urine you’ve ever smelled. And very few have toilet paper in the stall or soap near the sink...hmm...We’ve had our fair share of squatties this time. Thankfully we prepared Miyah for this phenomena by showing her pictures and describing how to use one. There is a definite technique in order to keep dry! They’re probably not as bad as they sound....no worse than restrooms at most public gas stations in the states.
We were all tired so we ate dinner in the hotel. Interesting fare on the buffet...shark fin soup, pig’s ear soup, boiled ox tongue, and some kind of squid. We didn’t eat much, but we were tired enough that it didn’t matter.
We put Miyah to bed in Pat’s room while I packed the suitcases and she fell asleep immediately. Pat went down to get a massage in the hotel. We leave for Kunming tomorrow!!