July 27

At the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall - fewer tourists, more wall.
We walked from that farthest misty peak.
At the cloisonne factory.
More of the hutongs follow in the next post. It's hard to grasp this place.
Charlotte expertly wraps her Peking duck in a mandarin pancake using only chopsticks!

What a packed day we have had here since hooking up with our guide. Sarah Peng reserved a car and driver for us, and we sped out of this enormous city to the Great Wall. We didn't go to the section that all the tourists go to, although there were several groups at the section farther out of the city, we could actually see the wall. We walked for about an hour, then turned back when the steps seemed to go staright up! Thank the lord we took the cable car up or I would have never made it to the wall in the first place. The views were breathtaking, and it's overwhelming to see the scope of the structure. We took way too many pictures just like my colleague, Larry, said we would! I was panting so much that I hyperventilated and it took an hour before the numbness left my hands.

We had a delicious lunch in a tea house beside the cloisonne factory and then a tour that gave us the whole process followed by a trip to the show room. The artistry meant all the more having just seen how the items were made. We had a rest in the car on the way back to the city and passed the "birds nest" stadium designed for the Olympics. Stunning.

Then we toured the hutongs by rickshaw. Couldn't believe that any one would live in these tiny bungalows accessible only through winding alleys and many without toilets. That's why there are a ton of public toilets throughout the complex, but Charlotte discovered that they are squat toilets (no seats) and have no doors either! However, after an explanation of the symbolism on the doors to the various bungalows (involving various ways to keep both short and tall demons out) we saw the interior of a beautiful home complete with its own courtyard that had birds and pet grasshoppers in cages. The shrine to Buddha in the front room welcomed us along with pictures of various photos of Beijing Opera stars. It seems the woman who owns this place is as big a fan of Beijing Opera as I. I'm so glad we saw the hutongs because so many of them are being torn down to make way for Olympic venues, and it is such a loss of Old Beijing.

That night we had a real Peking duck dinner at a "first rate" restaurant. Delightful.