The Great Wall and beyond....

Today we went to Tianamen Square first. Everywhere was crowded, so many tour groups were there, including Chinese. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, we just stood around the concrete pad and looked around to the various buildings. Our guide told us that 100,000 people could fit standing inside the square. Of course we got a pic of the famous portrait hanging of the emperor Mao too. From there we walked to The Forbidden City. This place was humongous, with sooooo many different buildings to see. A funny thing about being there was that the Chinese people kept crowding around and taking pictures of the daughter and son of a couple in our group who were blond headed. They would place their Chinese children in with them for several pics. You would've thought these kids were celebrities, no kidding. It got to the point where it was quite tiring. When we were walking to this place, there was an older Chinese man walking toward us, he stopped at a trash can and blew his nose right into it with kleenex! We were so surprised... and repulsed. Just had to share this gross tidbit...
Ok so from there, our guides took us to this restaurant to have roasted duck and other Chinese food. The food there was probably some of the best we've ever had. Talk about delicious!!
From there we walked to our adoption agency's office here in Beijing for a short film. After this, we were bound for The Great Wall. We had to ride over an hour to get there too. However, they did take us by the Olympic park, so we got to see where the opening ceremony will take place.
Today was pretty dreary and foggy while touring the wall. There was snow and ice on the ground and some covered the steps to/from the wal which made climbing that more difficult. These steps were very uneven and some were probably 12" high and others were maybe 4" high, they all varied in size. This made it quite harder for my short legs to hike up those steep , deep stairs. Do you feel sorry for me yet? haha Well Scott climbed up to the 2nd highest point which was forever long. Before you even got to that point, the visibility was very very poor due to the fog. I took several long breaks in getting myself up there, I huffed and puffed, thought my heart would pound out of my chest too. However, I told myself that if these older people could do this, that I would too. My legs were already sore starting out, and now they're much worse!
I'm so out of shape... Anyway, it was so weird to think that we actually got to go see this place, let alone get to climb a part of it. This was quite an experience, which we will never forget! I will post pics later, because we were late getting back to the hotel so I'm getting a later start here. We're so tired, we're about to drop! (It is Sunday night 7:30 p.m. here). Ok we were so tired and just ordered room service. Let me tell you, I ordered a cheeseburger/fries, Scott got a club sandwich/fries. I took one bite of it and I'm here to tell you it was not beef. The menu said it was 100% beef, I think it lied. It had a wang to it, tasted weird and foreign. Scott tasted and said he thought it tasted like ground up duck. His sandwich had cucumber on it, ever heard of that on a club? BTW, we leave in the morning at 6:30 to head to the airport to fly to Urumqi!!! YAY!!!!The time is almost here to meet our Drew!!!