The next sight was the one we had all been anticipating with much excitement: The Great Wall. The incredible man made structure is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and rightly so. Incredible. Breath taking. Immense. Everywhere you looked up and down the towering mountains, there it was. Mind boggling to think that this entire creation, over two thousand miles long and wide enough to accommodate several side-by-side horses, was laid entirely by hand. We arrived in Badaling and walked on a mere portion of Wall before we found ourselves winded and our legs aching from the sheer steep rise of the Wall. It felt as though we were walking at a 60-degree incline. As we rested along the way to the top, we watched some of the children attempt to run up the brick-paved path only to end up gasping once they reached one of the beacon towers. One small child was wearing an interesting hat that was round, rimless, and had a long, braided queue attached to the back of it to give the illusion that it was the child’s own hair trailing down. Despite the amusing headgear the child had on, we had to give him credit – he was being carried while we labored uphill by ourselves. The descent was much faster (occasionally dangerously so) and once we reached the exit and got past all of the pushy vendors, we took a moment to admire the creation one last time before heading back to Beijing. The Wall and the surrounding mountainside was an amazing and awe-inspiring place and definitely a sight not to be forgotten.

On Sunday, still enjoying the national extended holiday weekend, we drove to Yihehuan, the Summer Palace where emperors and empresses would frolic after escaping from the rigors of palace life in the Forbidden City. We bargained a bit in our Chinglish ("Duo shao chyan?" - "how much are they" in Chinese - and "no no, too much" in English) and purchased a few postcards before we toured the Palace. We strolled along Kunming Lake, the charming gardens, and the tranquil park. We saw the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, the Cloud Dispelling Hall, and the Palace of Virtue and Harmony. The names were marvelous and so much more elegant and descriptive than Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. A boat tour took us around the lake to the Long Corridor, which, true to its name, is mighty long – about half a mile along the shore. The corridor is painted inside and out with scenes of Chinese flowers, animals, myths, and people. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards took whitewashed over all the paintings but an attempt has been made since then to restore them to their original appearance. It is a shame that so much art was systematically destroyed in those years. The last sight we viewed in Yihehuan was Empress Ci Xi's famous Marble Boat. Apparently, the good Empress told her people that although she regretted it, she needed to tax them to raise money for a navy to ward off invaders. Money in hand, she changed her mind and decided to build a lavish, marble boat upon which to hold parties and dinners. She was not very popular.

Our next stop was Tian Ten, the Temple of Heaven, considered to be the exact meeting point of Heaven and Earth. Historically, the Temple of Heaven was so sacred that the citizens could not even look upon it, especially because the complex was part of the Forbidden City which was not open to us mere peons until 1912. Now, even foreigners are permitted to gaze upon the Temple, see the wonder of the blue-topped Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, and walk around grounds and admire the classic Ming architecture at will. We ended our day with some delicious roasted yams from the street vendors outside of the Temple.

After four days of holidays, Monday hit. People were driving to work, helter-skelter traffic started up again, and factories began churning out acres of thick, nasty pollution. When I got up at 7am (thanks to the evil, torturous cuckoo clock) and looked outside, it appeared very foggy . . . but the fog never lifted. It wasn't fog; it was unadulterated pollution. Tiananmen Square was on the agenda this day so we hailed a cab to take us there. One aside: the inside of Chinese cabs are so funny; they are like some American cabs in that they have a glass partition between the front and back seats, but for added protection (although I don't know if it's for our protection or theirs), they have another glass partition between the front passenger's side and the driver's side. This means the driver has to tool around the city in a cramped little plastic box a quarter of the size of the car all day with only a small sliding box to receive any fares.

Tiananmen Square: largest public square in the world, home of the Great Hall of the People, and most known for the massacre that occurred in 1989. It was much less crowded after the holidays, so we were free to wander at a leisurely pace. A huge portrait of Chairman Mao greeted us at the entrance of the Forbidden City which contained hall after hall of ornate pillars, huge thrones, gilded ceilings, carved dragons and lions and bears oh my, and a fortune in jewels. The interior was vast and hushed. Each room seemed more opulent than the next. One intriguing piece of handiwork was a five foot jade carving of a mountain complete with intricately sculpted miniature trees, animals, and people. Another room contained delicate porcelain while yet another featured gleaming, deadly weapons. The city was so grand and spacious that we actually did not even get to the other end and certainly did not see all 9,999 rooms because we finally lost steam and only had enough energy to retrace our steps and hail a cab back home.

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