The Great Wall was the setting for our morning activities. What an amazing experience!
We drove the hour to get to the Badaling Gate. Students were given two route options, easy or hard. They all chose the harder route. That’s the bear spirit. Most went all the way to the end of their section to find vendors and I climbed the wall t-shirts! The views were breath taking and the steepness of some sections is not to be believed!

Then lunch in a restaurant right at the wall ( and shopping!) lots of hats purchased.

Then off to a traditional Chinese tea ceremony at a Beijing tea house where we learned to differentiate teas and their various medicinal properties.

Finally we made it to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing where students could visit the complex and hang out with the locals playing a Chinese version of Hackysack.

We have lucked out with picture perfect weather each day.

Peking Duck dinner and Beijing Opera were our evening activities. There were some great cultural moments, watching one of the performers apply make up. It was a long, exhausting day.

Friday we switch hotels and will go to Xi’An!

More to follow!

KM