Great Wall

We got up pretty early this morning and headed out the the Great Wall. It was pretty close to 90 degrees which made climbing rather difficult but we made it to the first tower in the picture below. The steps are pretty steep in parts so this is not a climb for the faint of heart but Jen was a trooper and stayed right with me. It felt pretty amazing to finally be walking on the Great Wall.

On the way back our tour guide took us through the area where they have built (or in some cases it appears) are still building stadiums for the upcoming Olympics. We saw the Bird's Nest stadium as well as the swimming stadium.

It is pretty amazing how much construction is going on right now all around Beijing. Everywhere you look there are new buildings and cranes. This is one of the cooler ones we saw while driving around.

After the Great Wall we went to a Chinese acrobat show. The show was great but my jet lag caught up to me in the middle of the show and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I think I got just a couple hours of sleep last night. We were told that the mattresses here are hard. I did not realize that it would be like laying on a slab of cement. I have a feeling I am going to sleep tonight though.

Tomorrow we tour Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City and then hop on a plane to Nanchang. The plan is for us to meet Grace early Monday morning. Not long now....