To start off the day, we had our program orientation in the hotel. The orientation covered the itinerary of our trip. We will be staying in Beijing for five days and within that time we will visit the Great of China and The Forbidden City, also have two company visits: Microsoft and Cheetah Mobile. We will be in Xi’an where we will visit the Drum Tower, Muslim street, Greater Wide Goose Pagoda, Terra-Cotta Warriors. Shanghai is a five-day visit four site visits (Shanghai History Museum, Donghua University, Yangshan Port and Yu Garden) and two company visits (TE Connectivity and DuPont R&D Center).

After the program orientation, we had a two-hour bus ride to the Great Wall and on the bus ride we meet our tour guide for the next two days, Joe. The first thing he mentioned about himself was the pride he had in his Chinglish, and there were moments where that came out. When we arrived at the site, we had the choice to either ride a lift to the wall for ~$6 or take the stairs for free. (Note-to-self if I ever come back to visit the Great Wall pay the $6). After the agonizing climb up all the stairs, we could finally breath (for Robert it was reviving himself after dying on the stairs) and enjoy the view. After walking the length four sections we tobogganed down the hill to the start of the staircase.

From our program guide –
“As one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs. Besides its strategically important location and compact layout.”

For dinner, we went to a Hot Pot restaurant. At the table, there were stove that would heat up two different sauces (one was spicy and the other was more creamy) where the meat would soak in for x amount of time before eating.