day 3 (Mckenzie)

the great wall of China was enormous! On the way up there were chains on the chains were locks that lovers put on symbolizing love forever! The Great Wall was phenomenal. We kept on pushing higher, and higher, and higher. Our legs were aching! But is was a great trip and good exercise. At the jade factory we saw how jade was carved. It looked difficult. At the Cloinosse factory they first had to create the shape of the pot, then the next person had to put metal shape with glue, then they painted it it, then a guy smoothed the spinning wheel with the pot and then it goes into a fire to make it shiny. Did you know that ketchup (catsup) is not American but Chinese?... it is true. Notice the spellings - one is from northern China and one is from Southern China. They fry their ketchup before they eat it. The fortune cookie did not originate from China but from Japan. The Forbidden City was very pretty due to the fact that it was being remodeled for the Olympics. It would have been red anyway but they are repainting it bright red. We got to see the Emperor's golden chair and walked the city for at least a mile. The buildings were huge - not as big as a skyscraper but for architectures in the early 1400's it was quite amazing. They are about the size of a two story house or bigger. There are 9,999 buildings. The Emperor decided to build one more because he thought he was such a great person so he built one more. We did not see all of them.
In China they lucky number is 7, 8 and 9. The buildings were incredible and they looked pacoda and the base of the building looked like a brightly colored house. When you walked into one (you could see in some, not all) you had to step over the door frame on the floor because it was built up to keep out the evil spirits. In the very, very back there were some very cool plants in the gardens but since it was winter the leaves weren't on them. A huge (gigantic) corral was in the garden. My mom's guide when I was not there told her that it was taken from a river but our guide yesterday said that it was man made - so we don't know. In the rocks there was a fountain that was man made. I'll talk to you later tonight when we get Lili.