great wall/beijing

Today we were a total American, camera-toting, backpack-wearing tourists. But it was fun. Here are a few pics to share.

The Great Wall was very cool. First, it's not only tall, but on the top of mountains, so I have no idea how Genghis Kahn and the Manchurians made it over. It was very hazy today, but the views were still pretty good.

We also did the Hutong (meaning alleys) tour in old Beijing. We once again were cheesy tourists, two of two hundred riding in a rickshaw. But we liked it. Here was our view...

We saw all the predictable stuff today: the Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest), Tiananmen Square, etc. We drove by but didn't tour the Forbidden City. All in the van of Chen who makes a New York taxi driver look like he's Driving Miss Daisy. Once we drove on the wrong side of the road, honking all the way, and passed a cop who didn't seem to mind. That dude made getting anywhere exciting.

Tomorrow we do what we came here for. We meet Judd. We fly out in the morning and hopefully get him that afternoon.

We'll post some pictures and tell all about Gotcha Day soon.

-Chris