Butterfield Banter: The Great Wall and Other Great Things

While we were in China we had the opportunity to see lots of amazing things. Our first trip was to the Great Wall. It was exciting, but it was so very hot and humid. We only managed to walk 2 sections of the wall before we were all ready to go back. No pictures, but we went up on a ski lift and came down on these awesome toboggans. Belle rode with me and Jackson rode with Grandpa. It was pretty amazing. I was nervous at first but I ende dup wanting to go again.

Here we are on the wall...

It was so pretty up there....Belle had it made in her pouch....I felt fine but then I was SO tired that night and sick with heat exhaustion for about 2 days after

Climbing the Great Wall, one of a small collection of pictures I appear in...

I didn't realize it was so blurry, but the archways were very short

Hmmm.....I actually look halfway decent here...

Jackson was such a trooper, and he actually fit under the arches

Dad, on the otehr hand, was WAY too big

It was cramped, but we all fit inside

And here is our Christmas card photo

I liked this one, but it didn't show off the wall as well

Our next big trip was to Datong. We went there on a plane, but came back on a 6 hour train ride. While there, we saw a hanging monestary and cave monestaries. It was pretty amazing. The best part was that they called it their "small town". Guess what the population is, go ahead, guess...... 7 MILLION!! Small town, huh? Not here!!

Jackson loved the train ride. We had our own private little room and he had fun in there. He especially loved going through tunnels.

The countryside was very pretty

Ben took a long nap on the top bunk

Belle slept on the bottom for most of the ride

Tom sprawled across the bottom beds. You can see our sliding door leading into the narrow hallway. Oh, funny story.... at the cave monestaries, we were surrounded by Asian women (and men and children as well, I guess) fascianted by Belle. She was quite popular. Well, Mom and Dad ended up sharing a room on the train with two Dutch women. As it turns out, they were at the cave monestary the same day and had pictures of Belle and Mom and I surrounded by all the locals. On another side note, the hotel we stayed at was "4 star" but it was AWFUL. It was slightly dirty and the beds were like bricks... and very small.

The kid was so happy on the train

This is how pretty it was

Going through one of the tunnels

And chilling on the bed. It was a long ride

Walking up to the hanging monestary. There were lots of stairs

And there is the hanging monestary

It was beautiful and has been there for HUNDREDS of years, but it made me SO nervous

We all took turns having our picture taken with the sign

This would be an awesoem family picture if I could only read the sign

And our sponsors....Mom and Dad

That is where we started the hike up there

There were lots of very narrow pathways and staircases

YIKES

Back on land! Jackson loved our tour guide

Belle was so popular. That day she was even wearing a Chinese outfit we bought on our trip

We crossed this bridge to get to a beautiful remake of a "floating" palace on a lake on our way to the cave monestaries.

Here is the palace on the lake

And the cave monestary

They were full of giant Buddhas. See how small it makes Ben look.

Just a pretty stream along the way

Some of the caves have these facades for entrances

Some of the pretty carvings...

And here are some photoes evidencing the popularity of Belle I was mentioning before. The Dutch women on the train had similar pictures of us on their cameras

This crowd was actually tame. At the Forbidden City in Beijing people tried to walk away with her. It really made Mama Bear come out.

The caves were pretty amazing

Our last day in Datong we went to see a 9 dragon wall. Evidently dragon walls are pretty common but there are very few with 9 dragons. It is the highest number evidently.

We all picked a dragon to pose with

Another fun family photo for the kids to look back on

And now with our guide. Side note...the tennis shoes I am wearing were knock offs bought on the cheap becasue I didn't bring any and my feet were really hurting one day.

We stopped here to go shopping. It was pretty. We bought some fun cookies/candy at a little shop. They got loads of extra business because everyone cam ein to see Belle and then bought stuff. One of the workers even snapped a cell phone picutre with Belle.