The Great Wall

The Great Wall is the only thing Wren said she specifically wanted to see - probably because we have the DVD "Big Bird Goes to China" and Big Bird and Barkley go to the Great Wall in search of the Phoenix bird.

She was really excited to be there. We rode a cable car up and walked back down. We wanted to take the toboggan ride down but Wren was too small this time around so we promised her we'd try to do it on our next visit.

I forgot to take a photo of Wren on the Great Wall with the iPod Touch camera but I took one of her at the bottom after we had run the gauntlet of Wall vendors.
She's posing with her prize "fuzzy" flower (something like a brown dandelion) she found on the way back down.

Wren napped on the 2 hour long drive back to the city and when we got back to Beijing we had the driver drop us off at Tianamen Square. We then walked through the park next to the Forbidden City on our way to grab a bite of dinner. We decided to try our luck at one of the restaurants in the Oriental Plaza mall. Without being able to speak Chinese it can be challenging to find vegetarian options but we lucked up and found a place that had quite a few options for us to try. Wren, of course, wanted more steamed buns. :)



After dinner it was time to pick up our luggage and go to the train station to catch the night train to Xi'an. The train station was quite an experience with so many people. But in the cavernous waiting room it was easy to tell when our train was ready to board because of all the guides getting their western tour groups rounded up. This was our first time on a sleeper train and it was quite a pleasant way to travel the 11 hour trip as the motion of the train, with the help of the busy day we had had, lulled us to sleep.

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