Our Journey to the Great Wall of China

Today was so thrilling, fantastic and all around amazing. We began our day with "breakfirst", as our tour guide calls it. We boarded the bus for our hour and a half journey to the Great Wall!
On the way, we stopped at a cloisonne
factory. I have so much appreciation for this art now. The way cloisonne items are made is a very tedious process. First the item being cloisonned has to be made. For the explanation process let's say we are making a vase. The vase is molded out of metal and copper. From there tiny copper wires are bent and twisted to make the design on the vase. The designs are glued on with strong glue. After that, the vase is fired to further hold the design. Then an artist takes an eye dropper and uses colored powder and water to color the vase. After the first coat the vase air dries and then gets fired again. This process repeats itself many times. This is how the extravagant colors come about. Before the vase is finished it is buffered down with a rock. It is then polished with charcoal. This causes the wire to only be seen close up, but not felt by touch. The whole process was fascinating. Our tour guide's name at the factory was Herbie. Herbie learned his English from a professor that was from Manchester. Herbie spoke excellent English and had a British accent. It was so neat to listen to him talk. I gained so much appreciation for cloisonne at the factory.

After the factory we continued our journey to the Great Wall. We wound deeper and deeper into the Chinese mountains. We could finally see the Great Wall. I always imagined the Great Wall to be relatively flat. I was very wrong. The Great Wall follows the landscape of the mountains. It was definitely a "wow" moment.

As we approached the part of the wall we were walking we came across a bridge. The bridge had a low clearance. It was obvious that the bus was too big to drive under it. All of a sudden the bus began lowering down. It was like "go go gadget" bus! We were finally lowered to the ground enough to drive under the bridge. We had a little trouble getting the bus to rise back up. It scared everyone a little bit, but eventually we got going again.

When we stepped off the bus, the wind was terrible and it was frigid cold. Within 30 seconds my legs were numb. We entered the Great Wall and took a group picture. I was overwhelmed with the beauty of this ancient structure. It was hard to fathom how the Chinese built a wall so intense, intricate and beautiful. Even the mountains were gorgeous. I was amazed once again and could only think about how amazing our God is to create a landscape so breathtaking.

Emma, Victoria and I were quickly attacked by Chinese women who wanted their picture with western girls. It was so funny. We attempted to walk up part of the wall. When I say walk, I mean crawl. It is so steep! As we kept walking we were stopped by many others to take pictures.

It was so frosty cold. I literally couldn't feel my face or my legs. Luckily I had toe warmers and hand warmers.

We only stayed on the wall for about 45 minutes. We felt like we were getting frostbite. On the way out we stopped at a gift shop. Emma, Victoria and I were all shopping around when all of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a group of Asian women. They asked if they could take a picture and I nodded my head yes. The next thing I knew I was literally being carried out of the gift shop. Emma shouted "they're taking Kimberlee!" I thought I was being kidnapped. They carried me outside to get a picture with the wall. I was so scared.

We left the Great Wall and headed to lunch. There was a lot of meat in the dishes. I was forced to fill up on rice, unfortunately.

We left lunch and stopped at two places. Each was part of the Ming Tombs. I honestly wasn't that interested. Everything was replicated and we didn't know anything about the people buried in the tombs.

After the tombs we headed back to the hotel. Emma, Victoria and I decided to nap before dinner. After waking up I went with some other classmates to get "stick food". I have found a stick food I am in love with. It’s made out of egg, scallions, onions, various spices and sauces.

After dinner the majority of our class decided to go out and experience Beijing at night. On the way to our destination our taxi driver got somewhat lost. It was completely worth it because we got to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube from the Olympics at night, all lit up. We went to this dance club that had 4 floors. Each was a different theme: beach, Mexican, etc. The Asians laughed at us dancing to the American hits they were playing. After a couple of hours we headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep.