The Great Wall

Wow, what can we say. We have been to the Great Wall several times and different locations over the past few years,every time is just as exciting as the first, I mean breath taking! There is something about this magnificent structure that keeps you in awe.The wall travels for thousands of miles up mountains and snakes through valleys and is something that words really can't describe.Every view is more breath taking then the next. Two years ago while we were here for Seth,we hired a guide and driver.We tried very hard to find our guide,Mr V who spoke fluent English and our driver Mr Fu who only spoke Chinese. We were able to contact Mr V through email but due to the translation we thought he was no longer in Beijing and was not available. We hired a driver to take us to the Great Wall who spoke no English at all so communication was poor at best. On our way down from the GW we thought we would stop at a restaurant we ate at two years ago, well the driver flew past the place and we finally managed to get him to stop and he made a u turn and we ended up in another restaurant parking lot, he was signaling us to eat there and for about ten minutes of us going back and fourth trying to get him to take us to the other restaurant we decided to stay,there were lots of people coming and going so we said ok we will eat here. We piled out of his van and walked in to the building and we looked to our left and there was Mr Fu! We all looked at each other he recognized us and started hugging like long lost friends. Mr Fu called Mr V and we arranged to meet for dinner that evening.Now we were about an hour and a half out of Beijing,Mr Fu still lives In a Hutong in Beijing and we run in to him sitting there eating lunch!!! We all said it must be "Karma" to be on the other side of the world in a country with billions of people and a restaurant we weren't supposed to stop at,what are the chances?
Here are some pictures of our day and our great dinner with old friends.

Beijing

Finally arrived in Beijing, we had a nice 3 hr flight from Hong Kong.The Typhoon was just about over by the time we left and our flight was on time,nice surprise.Beijing is truly a beautiful city the history is amazing.Everywhere you look you see some sort of historical building or artifact.We decided to stay at a hotel located in the middle of a thriving hutong were people live,eat and play. All hours of the day and night this is a bustling community. the name of this hotel is the Double Happiness Hotel and I would recommend it.The staff can't do enough for their guests and the grounds are a wonderful piece of living history.Amanda told us this is the BEST place she has ever stayed. She said she felt like we were living like real Chinese people.
Here are some pictures of the hotel

HK Disney

We were able to take the kids to Disney again while here and as usual they loved it! The weather is very hot 95 - 100 daily.we were also able to do the cable car to Lantau Island,just happens that HK is preparing for a typhoon and we were assured that the typhoon would not come until that evening and guess what,while we are on this mountain the typhoon rolls in and we are stuck,they shut the cable car down and everyone had to be shuttled down in a bus. Ok so we waited two hours in line to be evacuated.Now it's not funny but we had to laugh. The bus had to get down and back up as quick as possible there were hundreds of people that needed to get down, so we must have been doing sixty miles per hour straight down the side of the very very large mountain
and the wind was whipping so it felt like a roller coster.As we made it back to the hotel it really started to rain and the wind was very strong blowing things over. Our flight it Beijing is in the morning so we will be watching very closely but for now we are going to sit back and enjoy the typhoon!

We are having a difficult time posting photos as I'm sure you can tell,but we will keep trying. As for comments we can see them but are unable to assess the blog so we can't post them yet,but thank you they are great to read. We are trying to figure out another way to post so if thing start to look confusing we apologize.

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