Cruising on a sampan

Yangtze river cruise

It was a fantastic cruise. Great food and incredible views. This
picture was taken on a excursion to the lesser gorge. The magnitude of
this project to dam the Yangtze was huge under taking. All told it
displaced 1.3 million people, so in addition to making a dam which has
enough concrete to build a six foot by six foot wall around the world,
they build new houses and apartments for the people they displaced.
The Chinese are very proud of this accomplishment. The following
pictures were taken while on the boat.

Terra Cotta Warriors

We were here 15 years ago and the buildings to cover the warriors are
much improved and very extensive. Chuck and I only remember one pit
and now there are three. Truly an amazing site. Judi-we are back from
the Yangtze after four knowledge filled days and doing blog catch up.

May not find Internet on Yangtze River Cruise

Beware you may not hear from us for four days. Blessings, Judi
Sent from my iPhone.

Chuck at the Terra Cotta Warrior Factory

These would look impressive in your yard! Tomorrow we see the real
warriors!

Jessica climbing the Xian Wall on a rainy day

Xian's moat and bridge

They are very proud that Bill and Hillary visited here.

The Great Wall of Xian

This is a rectangular wall 9 miles in length protecting the ancient
capital of China it also includes a moat. Now they sometimes have
marthons on it. It is wide enough for three chariots. Amazing. Judi

Breakfast Shrimp Soup

See the little white things those are shrimp. Thought they were onions
until I got to the bottom of the bowl. Oh yes there was seaweed also.
I liked it as did Shelby. She liked looking at the shrimp's eyes and
legs. Judi

Exotic Fruit of China

It taste a little like kiwi and has lots of edible seeds. Really
beautiful from the outside. We see it at every breakfast buffet
along with string beans. I'm getting where I like vegetables for
breakfast. In Xian now, and schedule for a Dim Sum Dinner tomorrow .
Should be interesting! Not quite sure what to expect or if Shelby
will like it as well as scorpions. Which she thinks tastes like
popcorn! Anyone out there been to a Dim Sum dinner? Judi

Chuck's Ride Here at the Commune---BMW

These cars took us every where because this place is very large and
everyone gets their own huge building. Chuck was loving it.

Road to the ancient Wall.

Wonderful Day at the Wall

Can you see the wall thru the arch? It was a tough steep climb thru
over grown brush but we made it even further today. All my time at the
YMCA paid off. What a thrill to see one of the Wonders of the World.
Judi

Sunny Day here at the Commune by The Great Wall

Our Peking dinner last night was delicious. Shelby had a great time at
the childrens commune making cookies and crafts while we had our spa
treatment and Luke slept. Weather outside is sunny, the clearest day
yet.

Sent from my iPhone

I Made it Also,but not as fast as Martin

From busy Beijing to peaceful Great Wall. In this part the Commune
has it's own entrance thru the forest.

Great Wall and Chuck

See the dark skies, well we got rained on. We made it back safely
thru the slippery steep forest path in 15 minutes. Tomorrow we will
try again but today is spa treatment day. Hooray!

The Great Wall

Our first hile to the wall. Can you see the kids? We are the Commune
By The Great Wall in the bamboo suite . Japanese style. Judi

Wrestling. Hi Ron...miss you!

Pictures from the Today Show!!!

Thanks to Barbi, my sister for these pictures from the Today Show.

Birds Nest at night

There's a small lake near one of the exits and took this on the way out.

Water cube at night

Today was more clear then past days which made the night incredible.
There is a large fountain in front of the building and a huge hotel
behind that was shining the lights.

Judi after the Today Show.

Hope you got to see us on the Today Show. Beautiful evening here but
still humity. Did see blue skies today!

Chuck and the amazing Water Cube

Water polo!!!

Here the view from water polo. We lucked out and saw the US team play
against Italy. I won't spoil it for you but we very happy with the
results.

Birds nest view

This was taken enroute to water polo. It is an incredible structure.
Today showed us some blue skies and hot sun. Us zonies were feeling a
little blue there for a couple of days.

Jessica wins the five star fish eating contest! She shared it with everyone even strangers.

Anyone for some chewy BBQ sea snake!

Fear Factor China

Martin chows down on super crunchy scorpions as did the rest of the
Fear Factor group. Yummy!.

Pandas at the Beijing Zoo

Could you ever believe seeing 13 pandas in one day. Well believe it!
This included 8 young ones! Eating bamboo and playing! Wow Grandma
Judi

china has MacDonalds, KFC, Subway, and Pizza Hut

Hi everyone.  Lauryn Brandt asked what we are eating.  Well in China we have egg, some boiled in tea, steamed chinese rolls with meat we think or beans, vegetables, lots of vegetables even for breakfast, yogurt drink, rice for breakfast also.  We want to try seahorse and sea star but we need to get to the night market when we are not tried and really hungry. 
We got to see our picture in the Tucson newspaper.  We still love Olympics.  Martin has figured how to call home from the free wifi at Starbucks.  We love all the comments on the blog.  We will try to get to the Today show tomorrow and the next day then we are leqaving.  We have to be there at 7pm at night for the time difference.
Wish us luck.
grandma Judi

Gymnastics

This picture was taken at women gymnastics. We were lucky to see the US team. Shawn Johnson had an incredible balance beam routine.

Amazing skyscraper

Our guide told is that the locals call it the pants building. It is
huge and quite impressive.

On the road cycling course

Here we are on the course for the road cycling race. There were two cyclists that had brokien off the pack early. We had a hard time spotting any US team members in the pack. We didn't envy them, we were sweating just standing there.

Martin

Six time Olympian.

Here is our friend from Angola. We met him on the way over in the plane.

Martin

Pictures from Opening Ceremony!!!

The show was fantastic! The sheer number of performers was
extraordinary. The precision was awe inspiring. I was really blown
away by the lights and colors and creativity of the show. It is hard
to put into words the feeling of being with 91,000 people in a
gigantic stadium....I really felt like the hopes and dreams of
1billion people were coming true right before my eyes. All in all it
was one of our better date nights! Jessica

Birds Nest prior to Opening Ceremony

We made it!!!

Many Chinese are inthe park waiting to see the big event on a huge Tv.

Tour de China---bike.

Judi explains to the rickshaw driver how to use iPhone camera.

The Dragon Building with huge TV

Happy Opening ceremonies

 
We have had a wonderful two days of sight seeing and learning about
china's long and colorful history. 
the wonderful thing was that I could still remember stuff from 15 years ago from our first visit here. 
 
today is opening ceremonies and we found out that the whole city will have fireworks tonight. 
we are going to a party for Mongol Tours to see some of the fireworks.  We are so close to the
Bird's Nest we can see it from the front of the hotel  and only a 10 minute walk.  We are so glad it is only a short walk because traffic will be unbelieveable tonight.  Martin and Jessica are going 4 hours early so they can get inside the compound where the
water Cube is also.  91 thousand people will be there tonight. 
Just getting the tickets for Opening was a chore. 
two taxi rides to the ticket office 40minutes away. 
but they are in our rooms safe as I write.
Can't wait for a review from Jessica and Martin about tonight's program.
I want to check and see if this is working before I write more.
Judi
 

Summer palace and the dragon lady!

The dragon lady was very spoiled. She had one meal a day which was 128
courses which sometimes included a many as 30 rice dishes. Enough to
feed 5000 hungry people. She couldn't figure out why people didn't
like her. Stopping to see if this works. Judo
Sent from my iPhone

Shelby also had numerous request! Star Dom at 4!!