Today was a great first day in Beijing. It started around 8 am, with a delicious breakfast. Surprisingly, it was pretty similar to breakfast in America. They had eggs, bacon, potatoes, and many different pastries. In addition to this, there was also rice and lo mein. My favorite part was probably the rice, even though it is really hard to eat with chopsticks.

After breakfast, we headed for the great wall of China. It was about a two hour bus ride from our hotel, which is in the center of Beijing. At the bottom of the mountain where the great wall is located, there were several shops with souvenirs, tshirts, and drinks. The people who owned the shops tried to get everyone to buy things by yelling low prices at us. We chose to take the steps to the top of the great wall, instead of taking the incline, which costed 40 yuan. The steps were really steep, and there were about a thousand of them, but it was a fun journey to get to the top.

On top of the great wall there is an incredible view. You can see stretches of the wall miles away, as well as the beautiful scenery surrounding the area. There are many watchtowers every so many feet on the wall. We started at the tenth tower, and walked all the way to the sixth tower. One of these towers had stairs which led to the top, and from here the view was even better. While the great wall was the most beautiful part of the day, the most fun part was tobogganing all the way back down the giant hill we climbed to get there.