Beijing - Saturday February 13th The Great Wall of China and Chinese New Year Eve - FIREWORKS

 It was rough getting up and getting going after so little sleep - we felt bad waking the children.   However, we all rallied, dressed, had breakfast and were on the  bus by 9:30 a.m.   Met up with Laura Beth and her family which now also included her sister Lisa and son Drew - so we were a party of 14.   They had arrived in Beijing earlier than us so we did not see them untll morning and it's so fun to be traveling together.  Destination the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China.   The Great Wall of China stretches 5000 km from east to west in northern China (that is about 3000 miles).  It goes across desert, grasslands and mountains.  It was started in the seventh century BC and took two millennia to complete.  The wall that we see today was mostly completed during hte Ming Dynasty.  It's really very cold in Beijing but we were blessed with the most glorious day -  blue sky and sunshine so the cold was okay.   Also, it meant that the views and ability to see the extent of the wall were spectacular!  David and I were in Beijing and at the Great Wall in 2007 and it was a rainy day and almost zero visibility and this was so amazing.   We were at the section that has the cable car so you walk a good bit up, all the while being pushed to buy souveniers - kept saying we would come back on the way down.   These ladies would tell you their name and "store" number and write it on a card to give to you and then would want your name so they would say "Melanie, I will wait for you, you will come back to my store"  We climbed up to where you take the cable car - Grandma did a superb job.   We took the cable car up and the views of the wall from there were just to incredible for words and again we could not get over the amazing visibility.  [insert facts on great wall - when built, length etc]  We had a great time.  Indigo was very clingy and fussy - obviously suffering from far too little sleep.   Isaac slept a bit on the 1 1/2 hour ride there so he was more perky.  Our guide Doyle is superb!  He seems to really like children and was wonderful helping with them and with Grandma on some of the steep steps up to the wall itself - some are 2 feet high steps.  Indigo's mood got a little better - perhaps with the bribery of a pop and we all had a great time up there.  Of course, Granddad went as far as you're able to walk - we just sort of went to each closest tower - not far apart and no stairs involved.   He said that just that visit to the Great Wall made the whole trip to China worth it.   It was late when we left and the restaurant where we might have had lunch was closed for the start of New Year.    We said we would work something out and came back to the hotel where the kids crashed and slept for a long time.   During this time, Laura Beth and I walked to the grocery store as we needed to feed ourselves  because everything was closing for New Year's eve when it's tradition for families to dine together.   Granddad ended up being at the grocery store which was awesome because we needed help carrying back bags.  The grocery store is 4 floors and we did the lower two - rushing around getting provisions because we knew it was going to close.   Laura Beth's Ben loves Mexican so she decided to do tacos (from a more westernized grocery store she was able to order on-line and have delivered, tortilla chips, salsa, queso dip, ground beef, taco seasoning etc.  She bought rice as Lisa had brought some packets of black beans from home and then we got about 4 boxes of KFC chicken to have with meal to ensure enough for all.   A New Year Feast!  All afternoon we had been hearing little cracks and explosings of firecrackers but by now it was really starting to pick up - it must have been around 6 p.m.  From our 17th floor we were just having a beautiful fireworks display so some of the LB's family came over and the kids played and watched the show - it's incredible to see fireworks exploding right outside your window.   Then we moved to their apartment and had our feast.  Everything came together so well and we had such a great time.   We came back around 9ish to get the kids to bed.   Trying to explain the noise and the fireworks is just beyond description but I will do my best.  None of us have ever experienced anything like it.  It seems that all 14 odd million people in Beijing over the new year must all light their own personal arsenol of fireworks - we're not talking about planned fireworks in a park - we're talking, every person just lighting big rockets - the bursting type like we see at the national mall on fourth of July, from the middle of every street, in front of every apartment etc.   It's incredible.   The fireworks did not stop and just seemed to gain in their intensity.  Looking out our bedroom, the living room, Grandma's bedroom, as far as you could see and right in front of us - anywhere you looked their were fireworks exploding.  The kids fell asleep - no idea how.   Granddad, with the curtains open and the non-stop boom and explosions and the room lighting up, fell asleep.   Grandma was transfixed and could not tear herself away from the window watching.   Finally, she fell asleep on her bed.  Around 12:40, they seemed to get even louder, as if yet another grand finale was beginning.  Around 1 am they mostly stopped - we think that might be a city ordinance.   Grandma thought that the constant barrage of explosions and pops and booms must have sounded like the London blitz or war, but this was so happy and joyful.   I can't find the words to describe what we were experiencing -  who knew you could make so many fireworks.   At 12:30 I was trying to video out the windows just to get some of the sound and explosions because nobody would believe it unless you were here in Beijing on New Year's Eve.   I will never feel the same way ever again about our July 4th fireworks - they are just going to seem so very puny.   Finally managed to sleep although there was still the occasional pop.   Feeling very sleep deprived after the past two nights.    We don't have the camera or ability to get good fire work shots but took a few token ones for the memory.  The ones looking down on the street below were outside the front of a restaurant where first we had seen all the cooks with sparklers and then these guys kept scurrying back and forth lighting fire crackers and then running off - they had Grandma and I cracking up.   Photos from Day 1 in Beijing here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322989@N05/sets/72157623439739496/