Greg and Kat's blog

We got back to the hotel earlier today, so we still have some time on our 24 hours of Internet…

We started today with a tour of a government cloisonné factory. A summary of cloisonné: make copper pot; cover with thin copper ridges to make designs; fill the ridges with enamel to colour in the design and fire in a kiln; repeat the enamel steps 5 more times; polish. It’s a pretty high-maintenance medium to work with, and nothing caught our eye for the amount it costs, so nobody’s getting cloisonné.

We walked (part of) the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs. This was pretty uneventful, but kind of nice. It was a nice walk, neat statues, and there weren’t many people there.

After lunch, we went to the Great Wall. We went to the Great Wall on the foggiest day in the history of the world. As such, we didn’t really see a Great Wall, as much as small segments of a pretty good wall.

The wall was still cool, but it’s too bad we couldn’t see any of the great sweeping curves of it as it disappeared into the distance. It just disappeared into the fog 100 metres away. [KS: I saw it on my last trip, and it was magnificent. Maybe this means we will have to come back to see it together without the fog!]

[Edit GB: We also stopped quickly to see two of the 2008 Olympic venues: the Birdsnest and the Water Cube.]

The food was finally different: a Peking Duck dinner. Apparently, they don’t do the duck meat and water chestnut in lettuce leaves course that we get in Vancouver. Too bad; I love anything wrapped in a lettuce leaf. [KS: Instead, the first course is carved crispy duck skin with the meat attached, and you eat that with the “pancake”, hoisin sauce and scallions. Then the second course is a broth made from the duck bones.]

I’ll post some pictures in a few minutes…