He's been waiting so long to go!...We left the campus this morning at 8 am with one of the other teachers (his name is Greg). After hopping on the 649 bus, then a transfer to the subway, we arrived at Jianguomen not far from where we had to meet our bus to Mutianyu. We got there early so we could have breakfast at Paul's Steak & Eggs (a place to get a western breakfast & it's run by a guy from Cape Breton). I had a fruit plate & the guys had toast, scrambled eggs & home fries. Mike gave breakfast an 8/10...reminded him of home.

We ate quickly, then headed back to our meeting spot right on time. Our tour bus then had to go to a few other hotels to pick up more people...we met visitors from India, Indonesia, Norway, and an English couple who talked & talked all the way there...two hours!

Along the way, we stopped at a factory to see how cloisonee, a local handicraft created out of copper, was made. We definitely appreciated it more once we got to see all the steps involved, but really expensive.



We arrived at the parking lot to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall with a decision to make: walk up 1027 steps to the wall or take the cable car up...Everyone else on the tour chose the cable car, the three of us chose to walk (of course!) It was about 1 km up, and we needed a few breaks along the way (I should have had more carbs at breakfast & Greg's got bad knees), but we made it :>



Mike thought "It's big! But I was expecting it to be bigger for some reason..." & "today was fun". Hah, funny! Mike's not a man of many words...Greg, on the other hand, was a lot more fun. He looked like a young boy amazed at where he was and was so happy that he walked up instead of taking the cable car.

After about two hours of walking the uneven steps, in and out of guard towers & so many pictures (taken by me...for some reason Mike doesn't like to take them), we took the slide down to the parking lot. Wheeee! I went first & giggled the entire way down...then when I got to the bottom I quickly jumped up to get photos of Mike & Greg. Mike liked the slide, but Greg thought it was a hoot! He was going so fast & laughing all the way, I thought he was going to crash!



Then it was back on the bus for two hours of chat with the couple from England, lol! After our long day, we headed to Guomao (China World Trade Center) & found a really nice Thai restaurant, filled up on curry & veggies, then grabbed the subway & a taxi home.

We had such a great day.. it was long & tiring, but it felt so good to get out, do some hiking & see a more natural environment. :) Phew! Back to our regular day tomorrow! Tuesday is my first day as a teacher...getting nervous!