Beijing II

While we were in Beijing we also visited the Silk Market.  This place is 6 stories of pure craziness!  If you do not like high pressure shopping this is not the place for you.  Everyone is trying to get you to buy from their shop, they all know enough English to try to bargain with you and everything is negotiable.  If you go there and pay what they are asking you are overpaying by 50-70% or more.  It was definitely high pressure bartering but it was so much fun!  We found a lot of great things and we will be going back if we ever get back to Beijing.  The place had all kinds of things, it was definitely the place to go for souvenirs from China.  They did not want me taking pictures in stores but I got a few.  There was also a couple floors of clothes and toys, mainly Columbia, Northface and Tommy Hilfiger clothing, all fake I'm sure.

 These rugs were amazing, I wish that I could have figured out a way to get them home, I would have definitely bought a couple.

Kyle's parents had them paint the girls names in Chinese.

Next up was the Great Wall of China.  There are four different Great Wall sites outside of Beijing.  The closest and therefore the most crowded is Badaling.  I did not want to go here, but the hotel concierge did not think that I would be able to get anyone to take to the the sites that are further away.  So I gave in and we decided to go to Badaling.  Badaling was much more commercialized, busy and the wall was heavily reconstructed in portions.  In fact when you came to the point that they had stopped restoring the wall they put up a gate and would not let you go any further.  There were also lots of souvenir stalls along the wall.

 It is hard for me to describe how steep the wall is. I was surprised by this but I really shouldn't have been, the mountains here are straight up and the wall just follows the contour of the land.

 Once we started climbing, I'm not sure what the bigger attraction was, Madi or the Wall. 

 You could get your picture taken with a camel or a warrior 

 The gate at the end

 The steps are worn down by all the people walking on them for so many years.

The steps are also super uneven, so you might take a huge step then a tiny step, made it even more difficult to walk especially for the kids, sometimes the girls could barely get their foot up high enough to take the step!

After Badaling Kyle and I decided that we should try to get to the site that I originally wanted to go to.  This site is called Mutianyu it is not nearly as popular therefore it was not crowded.  We found a lady who considered taking us there but her price was real high, so we bartered for a while but finally gave in and decided that this might be a once in a lifetime so we would just pay it.  It was worth it.  The drive alone was amazing, we drove through the mountains and tiny towns along the wall and south of the wall for about 2 - 3 hours.  It was a beautiful drive and a unique view of rural China.  

 On the drive to Mutianyu

 First redeeming quality of the Mutianyu site :)  It only got better from there!

 After all the hiking she was hungry.  And tired of me telling her to 'smile'

 Road to the wall.  At Mutianyu you can either climb up to the wall which is about a one hour hike or you can take the cable car. We opted for the cable car.  On the way down we took a ride on a slide down a toboggan run, the girls loved it!

 The mountains in this area are crazy steep.

 Inside a lookout tower

 The girls and grandpa got a picture with some warriors.

 This was Kenzie's prize for climbing the wall at Badaling.  The girls did really well, they hiked up and down the wall at both sites pretty much on their own.  The Great Wall was my favorite part of Beijing and both Kyle and I hope that we are able to return someday.

This was Kyle when we got back to the hotel :)