The Great Wall and My First Bargaining

First of all, our luggage finally arrived on Saturday night when we got back from the evening session of track! My feet were shouting yippee! My running shoes would take me to the Great Wall in the morning! I have two huge blisters on my feet from my flip flops! My feet seem to swell when I fly a long distance and the flip flops were not cutting it!
We left for the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall at 8:00. It is a little over an hour away from Beijing. When we arrived we learned that we could walk up to the wall 1,ooo steps or ride the cable car. Well... those of you that know Claude know there really was only one way up. I hate to feel like a wimp and ride when he walks, so you guessed it, we walked up. It was definitely a hike! Huffing, puffing and sweating about 25 minutes later we arrived on the wall. The wall was amazing and it is definitely worth the hike. I guess doing the work to walk up made me appreciate a little more the hard work and sacrifice it must taken to build it. We were lucky I heard, because it was a pretty clear day and we were able to see for a long way. The section that we visited was very steep at points. Check out the picture! There were sections of the original stone steps that were exposed, however the greatest portion had been restored. We hiked about 3k of the wall and took many pictures. We were told not to miss the toboggan down the wall. Unfortunately, the light rain showers that we experienced on the wall closed the slide. We did ride down the lift and enjoyed the view.
At the base of the great wall is of course a large trading street. We were told to bargain hard and you could get a good deal. Well... I think I learned a lesson in bargaining my first time around and I hope that next time goes better. Here is my advice ...make sure that you have your merchandise in your hand when your give them your money!! We had finally agreed on a price for the 4 items that we wanted to buy. I had not picked them up and then the lady wanted to only give me two of the items and make me pay more for the other two. I couldn't walk away because she had my money and the stuff I wanted!! Yikes! She was not to happy, but she finally gave in!! Whew... I know that we still overpaid her, so I didn't feel too bad!
The next big excitement in the group was spotting some of the members of the US men's basketball team. Dwayne Wade, Carlos Boozer and Chris Paul were spotted at the wall. Carlos wouldn't let any pictures be taken, but Dwayne was posing for pictures and talking to one of the kids on our tour.
On our way back to Beijing, we stopped and ate at a restaurant. We really had not eaten a meal in China yet, so it was fun to experience some real Chinese food. Some of it was familiar and some...not so much!!!. I promise to take a few pictures next time I eat so you can see what it looks like. Well, we need to get ready to go to the track. More later! Watch the Today show Monday morning. We found the set and we are going to try to get on!!