Day One - arrive in China and visit Great Wall

It was a difficult trip but we made it. Once we arrived at London Heathrow to fly KLM to Amsterdam then Amsterdam to Beijing the airport would not let us bring two bags each. We asked to speak to the Manager as we told our story of the hats that were knitted and destined for the orphanages. Kathy showed the manager the website information that did bot indicate we were limited to one bag at 20 kilos. So we had to leave one suitcase a piece in storage at the airport which is costing us 6.50 pounds a day. Otherwise it was 25 pounds per kilo over 20 kilos. Needless to say the suitcases we brought had to be emptied out some before they were eligible. This means we did not get to bring the baby hats that everyone worked so hard to knit. If we shipped them cargo it would take two to three weeks to get here and the orphanages would have to pay customs fees. The killer is that if we had flown from the USA we could have taken the second suitcase. So I will take the hats home at Christmas and see if someone going back to Beijing will take them for me.

Had a sleepless night on the plane. Guy next to me kept passing gas. Seats were extremely uncomfortable and guy behind Cathy talked all night. When he wasn't telling her to put her chair up or for me to turn my air off he had a disgusting hack every so often. Other than that we are glad to be here. There were several planes full of Korean monks that descended upon Beijing airport as we did. All of us were able to get through customs together to find a large group of Beijing monks waiting for them with a large welcome banner. Cathy's camera battery was dead and I couldn't get my camera out quickly so our guide David took a picture of them for us.

There is hardly anyone in Beijing unlike my two summer trips where 1.5 million people went through the Forbidden City in one day. Almost had the great wall to ourselves today. Had lunch at KFC where we picked out the picture of the item we wanted to have for lunch.

After quite a hike we made it to the cable car which took us almost to the top. Then we finished the last leg of the climb in order to be standing on the great wall. David our guide gave us quite a history lesson which I enjoyed immensely.

Tomorrow is a shopping day..................it would be fun if we could fit whatever we buy in our one suitcase. This is going to take some thinking. If I throw away my underwear I might be able to get a couple of things. I can see the smirk on Jim's face as he reads this and says "yes, less money she can spend". Now come on Jim, they might ship it home for me.