In China
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Thursday, November 19, 2009 GREAT WALL AND MING'S TOMB I have to start out by saying thank you to everyone who has signed our guest book. We look forward to reading your comments everyday. We started our morning out with singing Happy Birthday to Conor on skype. He actually turns 11 tomorrow, but since we're a day ahead over here in China we got to say it first! We had quite a day. Climbing the Great Wall is not for weak. Combine that with the freezing temperatures and even the strong were having problems. We first bought a lock that we locked to a chain that runs up one of the walls, we had our names inscribed on it and will be back with Zoe to removed it when she's older. Climbing the stairs to the second tower was very difficult, I thought at times that I wasn't going to make it. What kept me moving up is the 70+ year old lady right in front of me that was not slowing down. She even turned around and giggled at me a couple of times. Steve was way up ahead of me and was ready to keep going, but I couldn't catch my breath due to the cold air and the elevation, so we wondered around a little and took some pictures before we headed back down. Steve says the way down was harder, I disagree, going down was a breeze compared to going up. After the Wall we headed for lunch at a factory were they carved Jade into different sculptures, all the stuff was very detailed and very expensive the picture of the Jade boat has a price tag of $10,000,000 dollars! We didn't make any purchases here, we plan on visiting a Jade Market in Guangzhou. Last we took a stroll though the Ming's Tomb -  it is a path that leads to the Emperor's Tomb. The stone animals you see in the picture guard the entrance of the Tomb, there were 24 animals , 4 soldiers and 8 Civil officers. We are off to eat Peking Duck tonight and will have one more day of touring tomorrow before flying to our daughter's province on Saturday. Love ya boys!!!! Have a Happy Birthday Conor!!!

Us at the entrance to the Great Wall We climbed to the tower at the top of the picture The chain with the locks, we added one for Zoe.

Me posing with soldier statues at the Great Wall


The $10,000,000 Jade Boat.


The animals guarding Ming's Tomb

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