Today we toured the Summer Palace.
What a beautiful place! I can only imagine what it looks like in the Summer. It is on a gorgeous and frozen lake. Our guide gave us tons of the history of it and it was quite interesting. I have tons of pictures, but I seem to be unable to use anything computer oriented...I'm actually emailing every blog to my friend Erin who is posting for me...thank you Erin! (you're welcome :-)) I'm not so sure I would have been so gung-ho to climb the stairs to see the view of the Summer Palace, had I known about our next adventure.We first went to a Jade Factory where we found out all about jade and how to tell if it's real and spent way too much money! However, we enjoyed a fabulous lunch and were ready to see The Great Wall!
Now...going back to my history days, I remember the Great Wall as, well a wall. When our guide said "Is 2 hours enough time?", I thought...5 minutes should be good. See the Wall, take a picture, be done. But no such luck. The Wall that we actually went to was the closest in Beijing. Our guide showed us the sign from Chairman Mao that said:
"The only way to be a true champion is to make it to the top!"
We saw what we thought was the top and said, let's go. We got there and saw another "what we thought was the top". This went on basically forever. To compare...when I do stadiums, I do 10 and my legs are shaking. This probably equates to more than 50. We were dying! I'm attaching the video and you can tell from me talking that I am completely winded! (FYI...I forget to turn off the video for a few minutes...so you hear me talking, but see nothing!) We were determined to make it, and we did! I got the t-shirt to prove it! It is the most amazing place and I cannot believe how it was ever built! How cool that we got to see it! 
We took a taxi and went to a very cool place surrounding a lake for dinner. Back at the hotel and getting things organized to leave for Nanchang tomorrow.
Love you all!
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