Wall, Greatly.

We visited the Great Wall and climbed to the top, which gave me an opportunity to, hopefully, work off some of that Japanese and Chinese beer that I’ve been “tasting” in order to . . . um . . . fully appreciate the culture of these wonderful countries. No organized tour of the Great Wall would be complete without a tour of a Chinese silk factory. (I think the tour company gets a tank of gas or something for bringing us.) Seriously, though, it was interesting to learn how many silkworms are boiled in order to make a single Calvin Klein tie. Heather had her calculator out, ready to do business, but she only ended up with a very pretty pair of silk pajamas. Today we visited the Lama Temple and the Summer Palace. The cab ride there and back caused me to realize how really gigantic Beijing is. As I’m sure everyone knows, the city will host the next Olympics and the town’s all abuzz with renovating and building. Sadly, this means they’re tearing down some of the historic structures.

Tomorrow, we hop a train for Datong. Wish us luck.