Day 3 part 2

On our way to the Great Wall we stopped at a jade factory.  They had some beautiful things, including this amazing boat carved out of one piece of jade.

The Great Wall of China

The highlight of the day was visiting the Great Wall.  It was extremely cold with strong, freezing winds, but worth every minute.  Tom did finally give in and buy a hat and I bought a scarf.  Brrrrr!!  Certainly not Florida weather.  At least it wasn't snowy like the week before.



We only had two hours there, so our guide had us ride up on these sleds that hooked onto a track, and carried us up the hill to the wall.  It saved us lots of time.  We also got to ride it down when we were frozen.  That was nice.



Our last stop of the day was at the silk market in Beijing.  We were pretty tired out by then, but it was interesting to see how they make the silk thread from the silk worm cacoons and make it into such beautiful things.  It was nice to go back to our nice hotel and fall into bed at the end of the day.  Most of all we were excited to be heading to Gracie's province the next day.