Heritage Tour
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Friday, July 3, 2015 THE GREAT WALL AND THE JADE FACTORY The big event of the day today was a trip to hike the Great Wall. On the way we made a quick and very expensive stop to a government certified jade market. All the Horvath ladies left with an heirloom quality purchase which will be our major souvenirs of this trip. Andrea and Anna chose jewelry while Mia chose a jade statue. We visited a beautiful section of the Great Wall called the "Juyongguan" that was strategically chosen because it is so steep that it discourages high numbers of tourists. It was a super challenging hike and everyone was focused on getting to a certain level of towers up the steep mountainside. Mia was the Horvath that went the greatest distance. You can see in the pictures below that a single step for Annabel nearly took half her body length. We ended the evening with dinner at a famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. They carved the duck right in front of you at the table and it tasted outstanding! Even Mia and Annabel, who claimed to not like duck before the dinner, ate every bite of the duck. They also had very funny rubber duckie-like signage at the entrance to the restaurant. It was a fun place and a great meal. Tomorrow we fly to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors and the ancient city. We have to leave the hotel at 5:00 AM so I'd better get some sleep. Talk to you all tomorrow!