Saturday

We had a great night of sleep.  We are staying at the Marriott in Beijing, they have a breakfast buffet that is quite interesting.  They have the normal breakfast offerings, but some unusual ones too such as baked beans, vegetable soup, and steamed vegetables. 

We met our local guide at 10 along with two other families with our agencies.  We had a VERY BUSY day sightseeing.  We started out at the Great Wall of China.  That is an amazing place.  Dennis climbed all the way to the top  I chose to just go a little ways and then investigate the towers and cannons at the lower level.  From there we went to the Friendship Store for lunch.  We all sat at a large table with a lazy susan in the middle, and they brought out all kinds of food. We had pot stickers, rice, soup, orange chicken, a beef dish, a whole fish, fried chicken, french fries, steamed vegetables, a green stick looking vegetable that was really good but we did not know what it was, and watermelon It was quite delicious.

Then we experienced Beijing traffic that makes DFW traffic seem like nothing.  We visited a silk factory, where they showed us how they make a silk quilt.  Next stop was the Olympic venues, we got to walk around the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.  

It is 7:45 and we are going to have a quiet evening.  We head to Hangzhou tomorrow afternoon.