There were some shopping booths on the walkway up to the stairs. There were some people dressed up in traditional Chinese costumes.
We had to hike over 900 steep steps before we even reached the wall.
It was unreal to actually be walking on the Great Wall of China. It was interesting to hear that as they were building the wall, if anyone died they would just throw them in and build the wall over them.
Some of us decided to ride the cable car down. The view was incredible, even with the thick fog covering the mountains.
On the way back to the bus, we stopped off for a little camel ride!
There are some great pictures of George trying to get off the camel. I think Kevin (Kent's brother) got some footage on his video camera that might win him 10,000 from America's Funniest Videos.
One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the orphanage. These kids are children of convicts who either are waiting for their parents to be released from prison, if their parents have a life sentence, the children will live at this orphanage until they are old enough to be on their own. In each of these little houses, they have around 12 children. We all had so much fun handing out presents, books, crayons, toys, soccer balls and footballs. Most of them had never seen a football before. They had fun learning new games.
Here is the bathroom that each of the homes have. Most of China toilets are in the ground like these. It was very interested using the public restrooms- in some cases there was someone at the door to give you a ration of toilet paper before you go in to use "the squatter." Most of the places didn't even have toilet paper to offer. Since the toilets were basically holes in the ground, they didn't flush, so you would throw your toilet paper in a basket in the corner. The bathrooms were not very pleasant... have I said enough?
Next to the small school room, they had an art gallery with the artwork of the children. My favorite were these dolls they made.
The best part of the orphanage, for me, was being able to see Kent offer dental relief to so many kids that were in pain. When we got there, kids started lining up to show Kent their sore teeth to see if he could help them.
The circumstances were difficult. Since the only light in the room was the light coming in the windows, Kent's dad held a large flashlight overhead for Kent to be able to see the teeth that needed attention. Kent's uncle, Doug, held the chair back in his lap so Kent could get a better angle.
I was lucky enough to be able to hand Kent the tools that he needed and hold the hands of the children so they wouldn't be as scared. It was hard not being able to communicate with them and tell them how good they were doing.
This little boy had to have three teeth extracted. He was so brave. Everyone cheered and clapped for him when he was finished. Then we gave him some presents.
