Day One- Touring Beijing

Hello everyone- We are a little behind with our posts, so I will attempt to catch up this evening.

Saturday, November 20:

After a very restless night of sleep, we finally got out of bed around 5AM and got ready to head down to the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Ryan is having a very hard time adjusting to the food here, even what is considered Western is not agreeing with him. After breakfast we meet our travel group in the lobby to head out for our day of touring of Beijing. There are thirteen families in all, and we boarded our bus at 8:30AM. After a 45min very interesting ride, our first stop was Tiena men Square. I say very interesting because traffic is just crazy. I don't think they have actual stop and go lights and it pretty much seems like there is no right-of-way, just who ever gets there first. We shared the roadways with all kinds of interesting vehicles, from bikes to yes even a cement mixer, and BTW co-workers it was not Cemex. lol

Next on the schedule was The Forbidden City, where we walked through a handful of the 999 rooms of the palace. It was an incredible experience, to think how old those buildings actually are, and the amazing detailed work that went into them. Where is that kind of craftsmanship in the construction industry now?

We then headed back to the bus for a short ride to The Great Wall of China, now that was incredible. We started out with good intentions but after reaching the second platform, and almost falling several times (yes I know hard to believe) I decided to just hang out and take pictures. Ryan continued up to the top and when he got there I think I heard the Rocky theme playing and his arms in the air.

I could go on and on about all that we saw and experienced, but instead I have attached pictures and video for your viewing pleasure, but trust me when I say pictures do not do any of the places we visited justice.

After a long day of touring we returned to the hotel and crashed. We had to be up very early the next morning to catch our flight to Nanchang, Lainee's Province, Yay!!! Stay tuned for more.

Still trying to get a handle on the whole blog thing. The pictures were supposed to post below but instead ended up at the top and in some random order.

Much Love,

Danielle & Ryan