Great Wall

I have had trouble getting on this site to post but finally go through. I need to type fast since it is not cheap to be on the internet at this hotel.

The flight went well from LAX to Beijing. We were able to sleep for part of the trip. It really was not a bad flight.

We arrived in Beijing at 6 am and were picked up by our guide Ben. He gave us an hour and half to "have bath and then go to Wall" "No sleep for you." He was a great guide and spoke wonderful English, a lot better than my broken phrases in chinese, though I would get polite laughs and then corrections on my tones.

The Great Wall was amazing. 20 yuears ago when I was on it I told Debbi I wanted to go back with her one day and we did. It was very cold, but as we walked we shed some layers and enjoyed the day. We also went to a jade factory, a silk store, where we got to stretch some silk fibers - whcih four ladies made look easy and made me look silly. We all laughed very much. We also went to a Cloisonae (I spelled that wrong) store and we saw how they made this amazing art.

We had a great lunch of Chinese fried dumplings and what we woudl call Kung Pao chicken - the best I have ever had.

We must some interesting travelers from America who sat near us at lunch and swapped some stories.

I am still up at almost midnight our time. I did fall asleep for about an hour. There have been some glitches that came up as we tried to confirm our flights in and out of China. Our wonderful travel agent is working on it as we speak. I am able to write so mcuh because I am waiting for her to let me know everything is ok.

We were very tired tonight - Debbi fell asleep quickly hours ago and is asleep as I type.

We made contact with our new friend, a former student from NC who is teaching English in China. We will meet tomorrow and visit and see more of Beijing.

Keep praying for our travel problems to work out so we can see our friend in Kunming.

We'll try to post again from Kunming. Just a few days until we meet AnGrace.