Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Up Early

Up early so we could drive 3 hours to the Shanhaiguan section of the Great Wall. This is the section where the Great Wall meets the sea. It is known as the Dragon's head. Mr. Xue, our new driver, picked us up at 7:30. Carrasco's went with us. Some of us were not feeling so well but others of us felt fine. We loaded up and headed out. We finally got to where we thought was going to take us to the wall. Wrong! We pulled into the parking lot and were greeted by a lady. Our drivers jumped out and she said it was 90 RMB per person. We paid even though we really didn't know what we were paying for. Another lady jumped in Carrasco's van. We found out she was our tour guide but didn't speak any English. Our first stop was "an important persons house" as Carrasco's driver told us. It was not interesting. We went in the school room, living room, marriage room, and bedroom. The boys dressed up in Chinese clothes to get their picture taken. The lady pretty much threw Alfredo into the outfit before he could say no. Cameron had already told her no but after Alfredo was in it we had Cameron do it too. It cost us 10 RMB (less than $2). We then headed out. Next stop was a drum tower. The kids banged a bell for good luck and then beat on a drum. The "town" was kind of neat to walk through.

Let the adventure begin.
Cameron, Alfredo, Ileana, Alejandro, Marcela,
Mr. Xue, Me, Leo and Fredy.

Pull that cart Cameron.

They don't really look like royalty do they?

He sure is cute,

The school room.

Part of the "town".

Banging the bell.

On top of the drum tower.

Drum tower behind us.

This man said "no picture"...didn't work.

Funny sign.

The kids with their horses.

Steep hill. We all had to keep our space from each other.

This man was painting this mural.

The boys are not impressed.

The guide told us we had to pay her 100 RMB for her to take us to the Dragon's head. We said no thank you. She tried to call someone to come get her but obviously no one would because she ended up going with us but we did not pay her. We walked along the sea and it was very breezy and cold. We turned around to look at the Carrasco's and they were all bundled up like it was going to snow. We had a good laugh at that. We stopped in front of steps that went down to the beach. There was a boat parked there. The guide took our tickets, went down and talked to some guys, came back up to us, and told us we were going on a boat ride. Ummm, no thank you. Way to windy and there was nothing we would see out there that we couldn't see from where we were standing. We went up steps to get to the Dragon's head and we walked past a man sleeping on the hill in trees. The kids thought that was funny. Finally get to the head and it wasn't anything like we had thought. Not near as cool as we had envisioned. It was still neat though being at another section of the Great Wall. We took some pictures and walked around. The kids found a cement maze that they enjoyed running around in. Fredy tried it and never made it to the middle. He finally climbed on top of the wall which the kids did too. They all had to cheat.

A little breezy at the Great Wall.

Entering the dragon head.

The sea in the background.

Cool design in the wall.

Todd looking out of the eye at us on the nose.

The crazy maze.

Our new best friend.

We walked back to the van and headed to Beidaihe Beach. We ate lunch in the vans on the way. Lots of sand, kites flying, and quads. WHAT? Again, it was very cold and breezy but the kids wanted to drive the quads in the sand. The dads walked the boys out while the rest of us stayed in the warm van. For 10 minutes of driving it was 50 RMB (about $8). The bad part was the dads had to ride with. Not really sure why but they did. The boys still had fun. Todd and Cameron got stuck twice in deep sand piles.