Hi,

Ok so today was a free day. after the grandmas relocated food from the buffet to our room we left for a walk around town. They have been relocating this food everyday now so we have some in the rooms at night. We won't call it stealing as it is paid for already. They have become quite the cleptos' now. They go down with thier purses empty but come back with a dozen hard boiled eggs, 4 yogurts, a bunch of suger gummy worms for Lia and whatever else they can fit onto thier bags.

So after the heist we walked to the 3500 yr old wall that surrounds the inner city. It is 38 km around with a moat around it. Its all still here with 4 gates north, east, west and south as exits or entrances. Traffic gets nuts at these gates. The wall is about 40 feet thick at the base with a park around the whole wall. We saw all sorts of people using it today for exercise etc. There was this old lady, say 80 or so doing deep knee bends and touching her toes. I watched her do this until I was tired so we left her there. She was amazing! A bunch of the people would look at us until I said something to them. Don't worry I was polite. I said hello of (knee how) and they would smile and keep watching.

We feel very safe here alone just walking around as the people are very nice and courtious. The air here however is pretty thick. After being outside you need to shower as it kind of sticks to you. You just feel dirty. I am amazed at the amount of trees and greenery as every road, highway and sidewalk has trees along the side every 20 feet. I was told this was to help with the pollution and they have planted 7 million trees in the last 3 yrs. The entire place is clean with no garbage or debris along the roads etc. There are crews that do nothing but sweep all day.

I saw a sledge hammer crew yesterday. There were these 5 guy just swinging sledge hammers all day to take down these buildings. At night they would clean thier hammers while waiting for the bus to go home. Unlimited human resources!

Tomorow we go to the wall tour and the goose pagoda and then its off to Beijing. Laren is still doing very well. She eats a tonne and has a quick smile. I have a cough now so she imitates me all the time and coughs after I do. She actually understand what we are saying. I will say get me the remote and she walks over and grabs it and brings it back to me. I have tried to teach that to Sue for years with no luck. She understands when we tell her its time to eat or sleep. She says some things in Mandarin back to us which I am sure is some type of flippng us off but I don't understand it so its OK! She is still a bit shy with stanges but if I am there or Sue she is fine. She has taken to Sue now as ell but still wants me close by which is cool for me and works out well for the plane ride tommorow night.

The flight here was Ok but the seats are somehting else. There is 2 feet from the back of the head rest infront of you to the front of you head rest. The width is about 18 inches. I heard al the jokes already so don't bother! Well, I will find some pictures to attach and sign off for now. Thanks for dropping by and I will post again LIVE From Beijing its Saturday Night!

PS, The pic of napolean is acually embroidery, it looks like a photograph but is made of threads!
The way in pic is at the terra cotta warriors, right to the point I guess. The kids play room in the orphanage is another pic and the broom should be obvious I guess.