What a difference a few days and a few hundred kilometers can make!  (Like that kilometer talk?  I’m becoming international in my daily conversation!)(Funny, huh, Hannah????)

The Great Wall of China was pretty cool in Beijing, but it was SO different here in Shijiazhuang City (looks like I just threw a bunch of letters together, huh?)(Funny again, huh Hannah???).  Beijing was VERY touristy and almost sort of “perfect.”  And, we went there on a Saturday so there were a ton of people.  It was cool because of how far you could go up the mountain as Taylor and I found out, becoming Chinese hero’s and all.

But here in Shijianzhuang City, it was very authentic.  Everything LOOKED a couple thousand years old, like you had gone back in time to see it when it was in use.  Even down to the ruts that were made by the wooden wagon wheels as they carried supplies through the interior of the wall.  You also were able to walk through all the passageways and tight stairwells that made up the inside of the walls. I thought the experience was a lot better here than it was in Beijing.  Plus, for most of the morning, we were the only ones there, so we got a lot of personal attention.

I’m sorry that there are going to be a TON of pictures again, but there were so many things to see that I had a hard time narrowing it down.

The day started with our first breakfast at the new hotel.  We had visions of a Western breakfast, but in the end it wasn’t much different!  However, we did see TWO caucasians at breakfast, which helped us now that we were not alone! 

Brittany thought she had SCORED with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as she was expecting…  Taylor enjoyed her morning cup of tea!

And her piece of chocolate cake!  Really, Tay?  For BREAKFAST??

Taylor challenged me to try the Duck Neck.  Seriously.  It was right below the whole fish with eyes and all.  Just what you were looking for for breakfast, huh?  Anyway, I got one and ate it and, quite frankly, it was pretty good.  Spicy but good.  Not to be out done, Brittany ate one, too!  When we told our guide later he looked at Brittany with nothing short of admiration!  Tomorrow she is planning on trying the fish with the eyeballs, but Kelly has said that she won’t allow that at our table!

We arrived at the Great Wall around 10:00, after a LONG drive from the hotel!

You are kind of in luck because I just noticed several pictures didn’t upload, but I’m tired of fighting with the internet connection (and Brittany is bored and wants to play Webkins) so I will skip ahead!

You can imagine below that if it was THIS tight for Brittany, how tight it was for me!

There was a section where they had a display chronicling all the kingdom’s of China and their emperors.

Taylor shows us all her muscles!

Brittany makes new friends…

Here are the very STEEP stairs you had to go up to get to were the above pictures were taken.

And the room at the top of the stairs.

The guide SO wanted me to take this picture.  I have NO idea why…

Brittany man handles a canon for the Chinese army!  She thought Jacob might like this.

Kelly, Caleb, and Taylor …

Here is the family at the top of the part that we were allowed to view today.  We are not sure if we had to stop this high because it was a requirement of the park or if our guide was just tired of us.  It could really have been either one!

 Kelly at one of the external entrances to the wall were scouts could come and look for advancing enemies.

This was a common view.  We would let Caleb’s hand go and one of us (Brittany in this case) would have to chase him.  By this time of the day we had gotten smart enough to have a blocker down-field (Kelly in this case).

Caleb is enjoying riding on my shoulders.

Brittany and Caleb play “peek-a-boo!”  I think we may be TOTALLY tired of this little game in the near future as Caleb likes to play it all the time!

A courtyard where we finally were allowed to let Caleb run.  Until he found the opening to the stairs that lead down to the drainage tunnels.  That ended his freedom for the morning.

The Chinese made these huge tunnels under the wall to divert water out during heavy rains.  I’m not sure how they protected themselves from the enemy advancing through these tunnels, but it was pretty cool.  I guess the tunnels probably ran back into China and away from the Mongolians?

That is it for today.  We were not supposed to go back out to the Great Wall today, but it was definitely worth the $80 it cost for the day!  Tomorrow we head out to a temple somewhere.  More pictures to follow.

Cameron