Burgeson China Journal

I managed to sleep until 4:30 a.m. this morning so that is a great improvement over yesterdays wake time of 3:30 a.m. After touring the Great Wall yesterday Reidar and I crashed at the hotel for about 5 hours while mommy went shopping (again) at the Silk Alley. We are still screwed up pretty good as far as sleeping goes. Reidar and I ate dinner at 10pm last night, stayed up a while, and then went back to sleep. He has been a real trooper on this trip but he was tired after yesterday's trip to the wall and finally crashed out. He has been a GREAT traveller and several people in the group have remarked as such. We are really proud of him.

The wall was amazing. We drove an hour out of Beijing to the Ba Da Ling pass and took a fun gondola ride up to the wall which Tiana really enjoyed since she loves heights so much! Everyone was very tired after climbing the steep steps since the weather was very hot and muggy. It was the experience of a lifetime and the views as well as the sense of history are overwhelming. Reidar enjoyed pretending to fire out of the parapets with a pantomimed bow as if he was defending the realm. Of course Tiana shopped some more and we got a few T-shirts and a great picture book about the wall. She is addicted to bargaining with the merchants and will have many stories about her victories upon our return. She also acted as mediator at Silk Alley, helping other couples to bargain for goods.

After the wall we toured a cloissone factory. This is a type of enamelware where the artisans solder copper compartments to a copper body of a vase or figure of an animal, etc. and then it is filled with several layers of enamel and fired in an oven, then polished to produce amazingly beautiful pieces. The works can take days or months to produce by hand. Of course Tiana bought more goods in the factory store afterwards. The Chinese economy is doing well this week thanks to our group.

We are all excited as we get our girl tomorrow. We can hardly wait. This morning we will jump back on the bus and go to see the Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square and then take a rickshaw tour. We'll let you know how it goes. The city is amazing and we are enjoying seeing the people, culture, and buildings here. We've seen quite an assortment of motorbikes and bicycles, ancient remains of the gates which once served to seperate the city, and the moat which still surrounds Beijing. We are taking lots of pictures and trying to soak it all in before we are preoccupied with our new family member. I'll try to post tomorrow with the latest.