Today we rode the bus for 1 1/2 hours to get to the Great Wall. We saw sections of it along the way, but much of it was in ruins. For this reason it's not possible to walk the entire length of the wall. The section we were on was popular and busy, and not at all flat! It was possible to climb to a tower at the top, but not many in our group made it that far. The pavement was uneven, and with my air cast and my blood sugars dropping rapidly on the climb, I soon decided to return to the start and let Michael carry on without me. The revered leader Mao once said that you were not a hero if you didn't climb the wall, so this may explain why so many Chinese people were there. A few of them wanted to have their pictures taken with us, so despite it being a huge tourist attraction, we still saw many more natives than tourists. I looked around in some of the small shops at the start while waiting for the others in our group to return, but felt uncomfortable with the pressure to buy, so ended up waiting outside.
Next stop was the Jade Factory, where we had lunch and a tour of the workshops where many of the jade items for sale are produced. They have a shop and a gallery, the later of which had some amazing pieces. I hadn't realized before that jade came in colours other than green. In the shop there was extreme pressure from the saleswomen. If you showed interest in anything, (like the earrings I eventually bought) they held onto the item and followed you around, offering discounts every time they caught up with you, until you just wanted to buy the item to get rid of them!
The last stop was the Walk of the Ming Tombs. We followed a path that led us through many stone figures of animals and people. It was a pleasant walk, and I had no trouble keeping up with the group in my air cast.
Today we experienced public toilets (or "happy places" as our tour guide called them) for the first time. Mostly they consisted of one or two toilets, with the other stalls containing holes in the ground that you had to squat over. If you were lucky, there was toilet paper, so we learned to carry our own supplies. The used paper was supposed to be put in a basket beside the toilet, rather than being flushed, which was pretty disgusting. Our guide would always encourage us to use the better happy places; I would have hated to see the ones that weren't considered to be as good!
That evening we had Peking Duck in a fancy local restaurant. Each duck is cut into 120 pieces and prepared in a special way. The skin was very dark and was amazing! You roll up tiny pieces in a paper-thin tortilla, and add veggies and a sauce if you wish. They served several other dishes, finishing with an imperial dessert (cranberry tofu) plus dragon fruit and melons, which are very common here. Michael was able to eat the duck, but wrapped it up in lettuce instead. Unfortunately he couldn't eat many of the other dishes in the buffet. Our tour guide had not been informed about Michael being celiac, so at first his meals were pretty basic (broccoli and rice with no sauce), but luckily they improved as the trip went along, especially after we got on the ship, where there was much more selection. But there's no getting around the fact that it's not easy being gluten free in China!
Next stop was the Jade Factory, where we had lunch and a tour of the workshops where many of the jade items for sale are produced. They have a shop and a gallery, the later of which had some amazing pieces. I hadn't realized before that jade came in colours other than green. In the shop there was extreme pressure from the saleswomen. If you showed interest in anything, (like the earrings I eventually bought) they held onto the item and followed you around, offering discounts every time they caught up with you, until you just wanted to buy the item to get rid of them!
The last stop was the Walk of the Ming Tombs. We followed a path that led us through many stone figures of animals and people. It was a pleasant walk, and I had no trouble keeping up with the group in my air cast.
Today we experienced public toilets (or "happy places" as our tour guide called them) for the first time. Mostly they consisted of one or two toilets, with the other stalls containing holes in the ground that you had to squat over. If you were lucky, there was toilet paper, so we learned to carry our own supplies. The used paper was supposed to be put in a basket beside the toilet, rather than being flushed, which was pretty disgusting. Our guide would always encourage us to use the better happy places; I would have hated to see the ones that weren't considered to be as good!
That evening we had Peking Duck in a fancy local restaurant. Each duck is cut into 120 pieces and prepared in a special way. The skin was very dark and was amazing! You roll up tiny pieces in a paper-thin tortilla, and add veggies and a sauce if you wish. They served several other dishes, finishing with an imperial dessert (cranberry tofu) plus dragon fruit and melons, which are very common here. Michael was able to eat the duck, but wrapped it up in lettuce instead. Unfortunately he couldn't eat many of the other dishes in the buffet. Our tour guide had not been informed about Michael being celiac, so at first his meals were pretty basic (broccoli and rice with no sauce), but luckily they improved as the trip went along, especially after we got on the ship, where there was much more selection. But there's no getting around the fact that it's not easy being gluten free in China!
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