good times in northern China

The last two days in China have been exceedingly full.  I huffed and puffed up the Great Wall yesterday (it was windy but sunny), and I made it to the 5th tower (which is really really high); lunch at the Commune – look it up online; and then we had a very interesting ricksha ride through an old neighborhood or Hutong, and then I had a fabulous dinner at the Peninsula Hotel last night:  3 kinds of edible flowers on a king crab salad but I was the only patron of the restaurant; and then the Forbidden City this morning, but it was very rainy and cold-cold. But at least we already did the Great Wall because they had 2 inches of snow in the same area where we were yesterday   So we were all soaked by the time we got to our restaurant for lunch today. We have 17 people in our group and all seem compatible and friendly and, for the most part, upbeat.   I made friends with at least 3 almost immediately. Taichi was part of our afternoon. Tauck really delivers and gives us so many surprises. Sooooo, I have been taking lots of pictures but it has been almost impossible to get online to post to this site, and uploading pictures pushes me off.  We are leaving in the morning for Xi’an, and hopefully the Overlords will allow more freedom outside of Beijing.  All is good and I’m over any jet lag. If you need to express any more, text or email me, but remember if you do text, I’m 13 hours ahead