Our second day in Beijing was a very full day of touring. We met in the lobby of the hotel with the other adopting families and jumped on a bus and headed north of the city into the mountains to one of several Great Wall observation points. The group was led by our guide Emily, who had taken Lila and me around on our tour the day before. Emily is very well educated in Chinese history and culture, so the ride turned into a classroom on wheels. One topic which resonated with all of us was the “One Child” policy. In summary she explained this was still the policy throughout China in general but different provinces and communities may have their own variations. She explained in general if you are of the majority ethnic group, Han, which makes up approximately 93% of all the people then you can only have one child. The one exception would be if both husband and wife were only children then they are allowed to have two children. If you are from one of the over 50 minority ethnic groups (the other 7% of the population) you are allowed to have two children.
On the way to the GW we passed the future site of a Disney theme park being built. You could see the skeleton of Cinderella’s Castle but in general the site almost looked like it had been abandoned, so we were unsure if this project is moving forward. We arrived at the GW and were told we had about 1.5 hours to go explore (this was not enough and we wished we could have stayed longer). Lila and I quickly went to the entrance and began climbing. Lila’s ascension up the wall was impressive and she quickly jumped out ahead of me. It didn’t take us long to hit our physical endurance wall (pardon the pun) but we still made it further than anyone in our group. On the last guard tower we made it to we actually climbed up a small stairwell from within to get on top and the view was amazing. It is incredible to think construction began on this massive structure over 2000 years ago in the 3rd century BC and continued on through the 16th century. It’s main purpose was to provide a line of defense against the Mongolians to the north as they were constantly invading. Millions of workers perished working on the GW and most were buried under the section they were working on at the time. Coming down this section of the wall was easier than going up but equally treacherous as the height, depth and shape of the steps was very uneven. I am convinced the inventor of the Stairmaster received their inspiration while climbing the Great Wall.
From there we headed back toward Beijing and stopped along the way for lunch at the Yu Long Friendship Store. We all sat down together at a large table with a lazy Susan in the middle. They brought out dish after dish after dish and we all spent time getting to know one another better over lunch. This lunch was much better than the one we received the day before as there were several options that were appealing. After lunch we then were set loose in the store for a little shopping and we found some nice gifts for friends and family, including a very cool cross pendant made of jade for Lila.
The next stop was one of the many Hutong communities in Beijing. These communal lifestyles consist of very densely packed homes with very narrow alley ways. Some of the dwellings share an inner courtyard that serves as a common area for the families. These homes are very modest but we had the pleasure of being invited into one of them where a young family was living so we could get a feel for their lifestyle. This family was fortunate as they had their own wash room as most families shared public washrooms. The family was very proud and happy; they offered us all Jasmine tea, sunflower seeds and peanuts. Through our tour guide we were able to ask many questions and you could not help but realize these folks existed on very little. One of the highlights of this tour was being transported by rickshaw (see picture above) through all the narrow streets and alley ways. The Hutong neighborhoods were on their way to extinction as many were being torn down to make way for high-rise apartment buildings. Fortunately, the government realized the cultural value of preserving some of them.
It was a great day all around, but we were exhausted and wanted to rest up for Saturday as we would be going to our orientation session in the morning and then touring the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square and the Yuan Hou Silk Mall in the afternoon.
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