We left Chengde early on Father’s Day, June 19, to go to the airport in Beijing for our flight to Nantong. On the way to the airport, we visited The Great Wall at Jinshanling, which was spectacular.
We took the tram most of the way to the peak (the hike would have taken about two hours) and then began our ascent to the Wall. It was interesting that we felt compelled to take pictures along the way because the sight was so amazing, even though we knew it would be even better when we got to the top.
Here’s just one sampler. I’ll put more on Facebook later:
Update: After our Great Wall adventure, we had lunch at the Chinese equivalent of a country diner, with President Xi and his wife looking on:
Then we rushed to the Beijing airport for the nearly two-hour flight to Nantong. Then it was 90-minute drive to our next city, which included my very first ferry ride, on the Yangtze River, the the third-longest river in the world. It’s also plenty wide.