Tour bus full of us

While in the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City I bought a Chinese dress for our girls to play dress up. I also bought  cute emperor and empress bobble head dolls. I’ve just been reading the box the dolls were in.

“Harmonious Union Doll, the romantic union is the beginning of love, the sweet love is the beginning of happiness.”

I don’t know if the empress had a say in the union or not, but I love the quote.

Day #5 Tour Bus to the Great Wall

We decided to take a guided tour to the Great Wall of China. The bus took off early in the morning and stopped at one of the emperor’s tombs, the jade factory, the enamelware factory, and the Wall. I’ll save the photos taken on the Great Wall for my next post. Don’t want to overwhelm you with too many at a time - ha, ha, ha.

Early morning in the lobby waiting for our bus. We debated whether to bring the double and in the end decided to leave it behind and made do with Tommy’s single stroller. As you’ve read in earlier posts, we survived!

The Changling Tomb is the joint burial of Emperor Yongle and his empress Xushi. We thought we’d get to go into the tomb or get a close look of the burial chamber, but apparently it’s still sealed. Instead we walked in and around the mausoleum going underground a little as we entered tunnels and dark hallways. More lifting of the stroller.

I’m sorry I didn’t make note earlier, but I did not take all of these photos. Xiaojun and I combined our stashes, so many of the best shots are hers. Thanks sister!!

Love these lovelies!!!

One of my favorite shots of my little brother.

Jade! The real good stuff from the official government-run jade factory.

We just had to kiss the jade frog.

Even more fun than kissing the frog was playing with the mirrors outside the factory. See Lyla with her lips so close to that dirty column, and me taking a photo instead of freaking out and pulling her back? I’ve come a long way my friends.

Oh Lincoln, you make my heart sing.

My sweet sleeping baby. Can you see my new bracelet? It’s Chinese certified best quality stuff. An early birthday present to myself.

The girls got jade necklaces with the animal that relates to the Chinese zodiac of their birth year. Lyla got an ox and Masie a rat.

Pictures weren’t allowed in the enamelware factory, so this was all I took. Luke really, really wanted one of those soldiers. Thank goodness it wasn’t his birthday too. Our tour guide must have said the word “ENAMELWARE” several dozen times. And he would enunciate it very dramatically. E-nam-el-WARe. Enamelware, enaMELware, EnameLwaRE!

We found a bracelet for my mom and Christmas ornament for Luke’s mom. Very pretty stuff.

Miles getting his first look of the Great Wall. He’s excited to climb!