Summer Palace and the Great Wall

The next morning we finally joined the 28 others from our group and headed to the Summer Palace. May 1 weekend is a big holiday in China and Beijing was jammed with people. If was wall to wall as we tried to navigate the Summer Palace grounds. we did have a short boat ride across the lake and picked the bus up for the trip to the Wall. We stopped for a Chinese lunch (provided) at a Friendship shore. They are stores where the prices are sky high but the quality is backed by the government. Finally the Wall. It is all you think it will be. We picked the "hard" climb - what else is new. One advantages was that although it was very steep, there were very few people on it and we could enjoy the beauty of the achievement of building the Wall. I should mention that there were vendors up on the wall as well as all over the entrance area. I did find something of interest that I bought. After it was back to the hotel and a meal with Chinese dancers and entertainment.
 

Friday saw us at Tienanmen Square except this time it was wall to wall people. The photos will bear proof of that. Then over to the Forbidden city. Now that was crowded beyond belief. It was more than we imagined with the size of the ground and the number of buildings. Then it was time for lunch - what else Chinese food Chinese style and the trip to the ship. We finally boarded the Diamond at about 5 in the afternoon.
With the 13 hour time change we are still a bit off; awake at odd hours. Our table has 8 people at it and they all know Bob and Marilyn who got us together for the trip and then had to cancel for medical reasons. We only knew Nanette and Jerry from a previous cruise. However because of the pre-tour we have plenty of familiar faces. The ship currently has about 1900 people on it. We are headed to Japan on a sea day. I will give you an update of Dalian later. Cheers

China on our Own

On Monday we finally got on the United flight. Because we were a rebook, we ended up at the back of the plane in the middle seats. For 13 hours we were not able to see anything! 2 meals and a snack later, after 3 movies we arrived at the very impressive Beijing airport. Of course we had already missed the flight to the Terra Cotta warriors.
We were met at the airport by Bessy from the tour company and taken to the Beijing hotel. When asked what do we do now she answered "Free Time for 2 days". after checking in we wandered to Tiemanen Square and the Forbidden city. After all the time changes we were pretty tired.
The next day during "Free Time" we went to the silk market. 5 floors of vendors all selling the same stuff. The aisles were very narrow and the stalls about 10 feet wide. Every vendor began yelling for attention and offering a special price. They also would grab you as you went by. Funny that the Chinese people were not bothered. I looked at a belt that started at 375 local currency and ended up paying 40 for it. Judy bought a few small items. After that it was over to the Temple of the Sun for a look, following down embassy row and finally a stop for a Yanglin beer. The restaurant (off the tourist trap) did not understand the order for beer and a tea. We did manage. Back to the hotel and finally our for Chinese food at a courtyard restaurant. It was excellent. That was about it for our first full day in China

Travelling To Chicago

We left Windsor on Saturday night with our driver and assistant picking us up at the appointed time. After a nice dinner in Detroit, we were dropped off at the Weston Hotel on the airport grounds. We wanted to be close to the airport to avoid delays.
The next morning we sailed through customs without a problem although Orange level was in effect. Boarded the plane on time. After about 30 minutes in the air (for a trip that takes about an hour) the pilot announces that we are circling over Grand Rapids and will not have enough fuel to stay in the air. We were 19th in the priority list to land. Seems that thunderstorms over Chicago held up traffic. We landed in Fort Wayne refuelled and waited 45 minutes. we finally arrived in Chicago 4 hours after taking off from Detroit and about 90 minutes after our flight to China left. There is only 1 flight a day.
Needless to say we needed to rebook and were going to miss part of the China tour. We ended up staying the night in a Chicago hotel with only our backpacks. We did manage to get on the flight the next morning.....