Great Wall of China and Shopping

**This post and the post of Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City are the first 2 days we arrived in China. We had trouble getting the blog up and going then. These are actually "pre-Mia" days but wanted to have them on the blog. Mrs. Ashley, thought these would be great to show the class because of the famous sites! Enjoy!**

Today we went to the Great Wall of China. Wow! What a sight to see. The Wall was built to protect Northern Chinese borders from intrusion. Most of the remaining wall was built by the Ming Dynasty. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was blowing which made it even worse. There were times on our hike up the steps that we had to stop b/c the wind would almost knock you over. We walked a pretty good ways up and maybe would have gone further if it weren't for the wind. Those of you who know Payne well enough will laugh at this one. He would count every stop that he walked!

We also made a stop at the Jade Market. Jade to China is like diamonds in the US. It is beautiful! We saw pictures of Michael Phelps in the store because he came and bought some jade during the Olympics. Speaking of the Olympics we were able to see where they were held and take a quick photo from the road.

Well tomorrow is the day we fly to Guangzhou! The city we really long to see simply because our daughter is there! Mia, we are one step closer to you!