China Day 1: Great Wall & Hutong Lane

Today we went with a group of Holt families to visit the Great Wall and then to Hutong Lane.  Unfortunately it was very foggy, so we couldn't see any sort of view from the Great Wall.  But, it was amazing to see the Great Wall and we discovered quickly how exhausting it is to climb it!  We made it up to the second tower, thinking that it would get easier from there (based upon what our guide said).  Rather, someone told us that it only got harder on the way up to the 5th tower.  So we turned back and went to a different segment of the wall, which turned out to be a bit more interesting, anyway.  We engraved Hannah's name into a padlock and attached it to a chain along the wall, as is a fairly common tradition.  Our guide also shared a lot of history about the Great Wall and how many Chinese people lost their lives during the construction of the wall.

After the Great Wall tour, we had lunch at a factory that makes copper pottery and other goods.  It was interesting to learn how much manual effort is involved in making  and then went to Hutong Lane where we rode in a rickshaw (a two-seated cart pulled by a bicycle) and saw an old Chinese neighborhood.  It was really fun to see where many Chinese people live.  Apparently it's very expensive to live there, but it appeared quite dirty (and was very smelly!) and rundown in places.  The buildings are very old, and we actually got to go in one family's home.  You enter the house's courtyard through a gate, and then there are several buildings that make up the house. 

It was fun to see a lot of Beijing as we had a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the Great Wall and back.  We rode by Olympic Square and were able to see the Water Cube and Bird Nest, but didn't get a good picture of the Bird Nest.

It was a great day learning about Chinese culture and seeing a really important part of Chinese history!  We found out today that we're going to meet Hannah on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. Only two more days of waiting to meet our daughter!!

Thanks for all of the prayers and well-wishes!!