Beijing Day Two: Am I really climbing The Great Wall of China?

We hired a guide/driver for day two's adventure. His name was Victor and he was fantastic. He spoke English (which is rare in Beijing) and he gave us all of the little insights into Beijing that we might not know of. One of which was you can only drive six days out of the week due to high traffic. Based on your license plate number you either have Saturday or Sunday off from driving. Since the Great Wall is about 1.5 hour drive away from Beijing's city center, we started our day at an early 7 am. We were one of the first people on the Great Wall at Mutianyu and it was as amazing as it looks in history books. I think I kept saying "Can you believe we are climbing the Great Wall??" We took a ski lift up the mountains and then began walking along the wall. Ella loved it. She loved climbing the steps, looking out the small openings along the wall, running down the slopes, but her favorite was the tobaggan ride down. It was the whole reason I chose this part of the wall to visit. I wanted to go down that slide! You get to ride on a little sled-type contraption and push forward to make it go faster or pull back to make it brake. It's a quick three minute ride down. Easy, right? Hmmm not so much for me. Ask Tom. I think he had to push me onto this sled. For some reason as soon as we got to the top and I looked down at how steep some of the turns looked, I started chickening out. I let a few people go in front of me to make sure "they made it" before I shut my eyes and climbed on. Once I was on it though...there was no stopping me. I was like a NASCAR driver taking turns at a super fast pace. The guys had to tell me to slow down. I was unstoppable. Actually, the truth is I was stuck behind a really slow guy so I pretty much went down the tobaggan at turtle's pace. (I was secretly quite happy about that). Nonetheless, it was still a thrilling little slide;)

View from our ski lift

A family pic on the ski lift.

And we arrived safely!

Perfect sized lookout windows for Ella

The ski lift from a distance and a view from the top

Ella would rather play than pose for photos. She will appreciate these one day. I hope...

She spots a leaf. I think she picked up every leaf on the Wall.

I think I can, I think I can....

Now it's a rock she spots. Imagine that...a rock on the Great Wall of China...

Daddy trying to coax Ella into riding the tobaggan down the Wall. She was as hesitant as her mommy:)

She ended up loving it and asked to ride again.

After buying a few "I Climbed The Great Wall of China" t-shirts for a $1(which totally mortified Tom), we headed to our next destination: Olympic Village. We saw the Bird's Nest and the House that Michael Phelps built aka The Water Cube. It was a beautiful area and had the Olympics still been going on, I probably would have found this a little more interesting. Or if Michael Phelps himself was there to take pictures with we would have stayed longer, but alas, I was starving and we all know how I get when I'm hungry. Our driver Victor took us to the BEST little place for lunch. He took us to watch the women in the back hand roll the noodles we would later place in our delicious soup. It was a great experience and the food was one of our favorite meals while in Beijing. Ella couldn't get enough of the mushroom soup!

The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium

Yeah this photo explains how Ella felt every time someone approached her for a photo.

The Water Cube

A quick snooze in the car before lunch

Watching the noodle makers. It was such an art to watch! They were so fast and filled those containers in seconds.

Yummy soup!

Once our appetites were satisfied, we trekked to the Summer Palace and through the Summer Palace. This place is enormous, but beautiful. The Chinese gardens and architecture is awe worthy. Who takes that much time to hand paint palaces and corridors? The Chinese do. And it's brilliant work. It took us about two hours to go walk from one end of the Palace grounds to the other end (and that is quick!).

I love this sign. Reminds me of London's "Mind the Gap" as you enter their tube.

Ella seemed to love the hills

The Marble Boat

Cool dragon boats

Tower of the Fragrance of the BuddhaPaddle boats


My delicious ice cream. It was like Nestle Crunch in the middle and cake ice cream on the outside...then underneath the chocolate it was a vanilla pudding ice cream...YUM.

Ella staring in awe over the size of the Marble Boat

We walked through the longest mural-painted corridor in the world. And I imagine the most crowded as well. It was hard to walk through it when every person wanted to pose with Ella. Some of the beautiful murals painted on the ceiling.

Finally someone wanted their picture taken with me:)
Dinner that night was the famous Hot Pot dinner. When I think of Hot Pot, I think of the restaurant the Melting Pot...yeah not so much. Unfortunately, we didn't pick the most fabulous place to enjoy Hot Pot, but it's all about the experience. I do believe I ended up eating a blizzard from Dairy Queen that night for my real dinner.

Notice the lollipop in Ella's hand. She apparently didn't enjoy dinner either.

To view the rest of Day 2 click here. There are tons of photos! (huge shock right?)