Driving from Forbidden City toward lunch and Great Wall, we passed this structure, named Dragon's Head, one of five buildings built to resemble a dragon for the 2008 Olympics.
Jade boat, carved from a single piece of jade
yours for only $61,000.
Shell of complex started as a Disney like park
ran out of money to build on unrealistic projections of amount of business that would be generated - too far from much of anything else.
Station on our climb of the Great Wall
for those who are often interested in where they are
One of the youngsters climbing with us (23 yo)
Two guys who had cycled to the Great Wall from Beijing
55 km to the east
Not making it to the top due to time constraints
we got this far
Surrounding scenes taken with telephoto
Climbing down
Interesting signs
Fine time to be questioning one's sanity
Parting shot at dusk
The cube from the 2008 Olympics
opening ceremonies inside
Bird's Nest and Cube
The Bird's Nest
Not quick enough - bus got in the way
Street scenes near Olympic site
Thus ended our tour of Beijing sites. That evening we went out with a couple from California we had met that morning. They would be adopting their child the next day. Of the group of six, two boys and four girls would soon make America home ranging in age from 10 months to Jiejun at 12 years, 3 months.
We went to a place called Dough something, which was a noodle place inside a mall having a face lift about two blocks from our hotel. We could not speak Chinese nor they English, other than Jiejun talking a mile a minute to them, so we ended up pointing at pictures and hoping for the best.
I selected something that looked like meat, noodles and rice and some sort of green stuff. Excellent choice - chicken on rice with noodles and some sort of green stuff that appeared to be something like spinach, just different but good. There was also a small dish of pickled something that was quite tasty along with a cola drink. Tian and Jiejun got something similar best I could tell, with the three of us eating for about $7.
