We started the day off with a lovely breakfast at the hotel (I told Jack he was going to dig hotel breakfast in China and the food smeared all over his face told me that I was right!) and then we headed off to the Summer Palace. Sadly the weather was not great and the fog prevented us from seeing alot of it. But what we did see was spectacular.
Then our tour guide took us to a jade factory where we saw how they make jade carvings (which was interesting) and we were presented opportunities to buy jade (which was was too expensive).
Next stop was the Badaling section of the Great Wall which was very crowded. Again the fog prevented us from seeing very far but Jack had a great time just being there. He wanted to keep climbing and climbing... even Jay eventually had enough!
When we were leaving the Great Wall our guide bought Jack a gold medal with "jade" that was engraved with his name and the date he climbed the wall. It is now his most favorite object in the entire world and he has not taken it off his neck! The guide and driver were quite smitten with Jack and the driver tried to put Jack back in the van as we were being dropped off at the hotel. The driver took Jack's picture to show his 11 year old daughter... I think he was hoping they would meet up someday :)
Our final stop was a tea shop where we got to try different kinds of tea. My favorite was the jasmine tea by far.
It was a very LONG day (we left the hotel at 7:00am and returned at 7:30pm) but it was fun. Please keep Jack in your thoughts because he is getting very motion sick when we go anywhere. Luckily he is still having a great time and has been able to rally despite feeling yucky. Tomorrow we are off to Nanjing and then we get Johnathan on Monday!
