Our son arranged our tour of the Great Wall...we went via a jade shop and then to the wall...I did a little of it, enough to say I had been there and the boys climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed...you get the drift! Absolutely amazing and beautiful and admiration for the sheer physical feat of building it. Oh, all those toned legs from all those stairs!
Back to lunch at another jade shop...we told our guide/driver that we had not agreed to any shopping stops and had in fact already done 2.
Heated words,then we said that wherever he took us next, we would not go in and just get a taxi. He said he would drop us off then and there...AND HE DID!!!!!!!!!!!! On the road we were on, a major highway...but, I will say, at a bus stop. The 3 of us got out of the car in shock and amazement and just laughed. The people at the bus stop realized something untoward had just happened...our son of course had no issue...he reads and writes and speaks Mandarin fluently. However the young man he asked about which bus went to Beijing or the underground stunned us by paying our bus fare when we got on. He escorted us to our final train stop (which was only about 10 stops out of his way!!!!!!). What an amazing Yin and Yang experience!
Add to that, the best fun dinner that night at a very local place to our accommodation...no westerners venture into this restaurant as not one person spoke English or was there any part of the menu in anything other than Mandarin...stunning meal, lots of toasts to each other (beer is very cheap) and our entire meal cost the princely sum of about AUD $7.00.Will leave the missives for 2 days...off to Sydney to set up/prepare for our daughter's 21st dinner tonight
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