Hi everyone!!! I am so tickled to be getting notes from you all. It really makes me feel like I”m not so far away from home and friends…thank you all so much for taking the time to write to me!!!!
I have to add to the last post from the Great Wall that on one of the 4 legged perilous sections of the WALL…a guy from Scotland right in front of us was goofing off and broke his arm falling into a deep crevace from the catwalk he was supposed to be carefully crawling on. I was the next one to go and Steve and Liz didn’t tell me about the guy’s arm till today!!!!! I was holding up the rear of the small group and didnt’ see anything happen. NO WAY would I have done that crawl if I had known!!! LOL! What an adventure. The more I think about it the more amazing it was to me that I actually did it. Turns out the entire trip we did was 16 miles…all stairs with a few steep ramps.
Last nite we went into a very old part of Beijing where the new construction had not changed the spirit of the ancient city. There were ladies from Tibet sitting on the streets doing incredible silver work and needlework. UNREAL you guys!!! We bartered for all sorts of stuff and loaded another suitcase full of beads. I found 15 colorful porcelain foo dog pendants to play with when I get home. Also had a couple of custom “chops” carved for me. They are the stone “stamps” you see on chinese paintings. One says GRAFFITI and the other SANDRA MILLER ….both with the Cantonese script on them as well. I paid 5.00 US each. Hope to have more made in Chengdu
Tomorrow morning we go to see the massive Terracotta Warrior site. We flew into Xi an today from the Beijing airport and said good bye to Liz. She is heading home to Minnesota as I write and I cried like a silly baby at the airport when she left for her gate.
In 3 days we meet up with my son Bryan in Kunming. He arrived to the Mandarin language immersion school yesterday so we are very anxious to spend a few days sightseeing with him.
2 days to PANDAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m freaking out!!! Love you all tons!!!!!!!! Will catch up soon
Luv Sandra and Steve
