105 this morning at the Great Wall. I burned my hand on a metal hand rail. Fei wanted to head up the steep part....uh....not for me thanks. She went with another family. They hike for fun. Most folks went one or two towers, a few made it to three. Fei and friends went to nine towers! Her legs were shaking. I think she was a bit shocked at how hard it was to climb. I sat in the shade with a frozen water and chatted with a mom and grandma from Holland. They were in our tour but we were kept pretty separate.
Then to lunch at the Jade factory. One of the kids from another bus knocked over a Jade horse that smashed. Wow, was that ever loud and then very very silent. The horse was priced at $5000 US dollars. I don't know how it ended but apparently they settled lower because they can use the pieces to make other carvings.
Then onto the Summer Palace. It is truly beautiful however considerably too crowded. Mom and Eric remember the fabulous park when Jia was a baby and we wondered what was on the other side? It was the Summer Palace. I just read The Last Empress so it was cool to hear Oscar tell stories all about her while we walked through her palace. Amazing. There was a really good thunder storm while we were there. It cooled things down with the rain and it felt soooo good. I would really like to go back there in October and take a good stroll. The rain did help to clear out some of the crowd.
We walked around the 2008 Olympic village before dinner. Boring. Worst bathrooms ever. We did buy some cool kites and a neat hair styling tool for Fei.
Our last dinner as a group and back to the hotel for goodbyes. Can't wait to see Lili, Jia, Luk and Eric. I have no idea how we'll get everything in our luggage. I'm looking for things to leave behind but Fei won't hear of it.
