Later that evening, we went to see the acrobats. They are amazing and pictures do not do them justice.

Dan on top of the lookout tower of the Great Wall.

Mary took us to a Cloisionne (sp?) factory where they make all of the cloisionne by hand.

The gateway to the Ming tombs

It's a long way down if you fall!

On April 14th, we visited the Great wall. This picture above is of the other, not as popular side.

Tiananmen Square

Behind us is the mote(sp?) for the Forbidden City.

For those of you not failiar with the "squatty potty" here ya go! It's kind of like a urinal built into the floor.

Here you can see one of the two larger crickets the family keeps as pet and they occasionally join them in cricket fights, which is popular in some areas of China. You can also see the "winter homes" of the crickets. They are the brown wooden items, one has 7 holes in it, the other has coiled copper wire inside the opening.

One of the family's pet cricket resting in his home.

The vases on top of the cabinet was the lady of the houses dowery.

L to R- Lady of the house, myself, Dan and our local hutong guide Jane. The man of the house was preparing dinner in the kitchen.

Pictured above is the family that we visited Hutong.It is four buildings in a square shape with a courtyard in the middle. This particular family was considered wealthy as their hutong has an indoor bathroom complete with shower.

Here we are with our pedicab driver. He was not a very big man but he was strong. He could maneuver the cab into the narrowest areas at a pretty good clip, never touching a thing.