Day 6, Another Brick in the Wall

Remote Outpost
Originally uploaded by jrherron

On our sixth and final full day in china we had arranged to be picked up at the hotel at 7 to be whisked off to the Mutianyu section of the great wall. Yes, We'd been there in November, but Francie had never been, and the weather had no choice but to be better than the first time we were there. As you can see we got significantly improved conditions from the first time. A side effect of that was that we had to share the wall with more people on this day, As you can see from the pictures, it was a fair trade. It was a beautiful day, we'd brought snacks and drinks, and we were ready to do some walking. Instead of Taking a left after the lift we took a right, and found the climbing to be much steeper. The right side is actually much shorter too, so we were able to turn back at the end of the fully restored portion and walk a little back the way we'd gone originally. We spent about 3 hours up there and napped a little on the way back and asked our driver "Victor" to recommend us a lunch place. He took us someplace in the Lido district near where some of W's fellow employees stay when they're in town. The sign outside said Welcome flight crews (in English) and we actually chatted up a flight attendant from the Beijing/Chicago flight while we ate.

Up close and Personal
Originally uploaded by jrherron

There was a dish called famously delicious green beans on the menu, and it turns out they were as good as advertised. Salty and with just enough pork to make them interesting, they went down wonderfully. Then we stopped by the Ladies street market to find some silk flowers Francie had been admiring at the Massage place, and then to the Framing store to pick up our goods. We were pleased with all but one of the frames, but we ended up not getting charged for it. After that it was back to the hotel to drop off our goods, and then a final trip to the pearl market to pick up a few last minute items. We had some trouble catching a legitimate cab back out to the lake district, but eventually found someone to take us and we ate inside at the same restaurant as the afternoon before. We went back to the hotel to pack up all our goods, and W and I snuck out for one more massage.
We knew we had too many bags to fit in one cab in the morning but the concierge arranged us a bigger luxury car for just under what it would have cost to get 2 cabs. We were immediately given business class seats on the plane, and did some last minute shopping at the Olympic store, and wandered off to the plane where we got upgraded to first class. I watched 2 movies and then crashed hard waking up just in time for breakfast. After a quick shower I ran off to work for a 1 pm meeting that I really needed to attend. I hope nobody was watching me too closely because I was nodding off frequently and would wake up just as my head was starting to drop.