For those of you who have not been to the Great Wall of China, we have news for you: it is huge. I know you have heard this all before, that it is the longest wall in the world, you can see it from space blah blah blah, but let us tell you: it is massive. And it isn't just that it is long. There is no way to take a 'stroll' on the Great Wall of China, not even hike it, nope in fact you stair-master, full-speed treadmill up it and ski down. Some areas you can take a break and just walk at a small incline but other areas are made of up intermixed small and huge steps that require controlled breathing and angry 80's music in your head to get you through (at least in my case). The steps were so steep that I held onto Ofer with one hand and the side of the wall with the other.

Not to mention that the steps were incredibly slippery from millions of feet and years of rough weather wearing them away. And this is not just on the way up, the Wall is just as steep and slippery coming down. I almost fell multiple times and saw a few people take some pretty big spills just when they thought they had mastered the terrain. I swear, if this Wall were in the USA there would be some governmental release of liability form to sign before you can access it. And just when you think you've done the toughest set of stairs you pass the guard post on the top just to see the next guard post in the distance on another even more treacherous hill. I spent a good amount of time explaining to Ofer how it would have been much smarter to bore tunnels through the mountains instead. Ofer would proceed to tell me that this would completely negate the purpose of the Wall. Details. The views were absolutely incredible and it was overwhelming to imagine how much work and how many years it took to build this World Wonder.

During our stay in Beijing Ofer and I lived in a Hutong. A Hutong is a neighborhood made up of narrow streets and many courtyard houses. Our hotel was a beautiful courtyard house renovated with plenty of space to sit outside and relax away from the bustle of the city. Beijing is made up of concentric circles surrounding the Forbidden City. Some Hutongs were for distinguished people in the society and as you got further away from the Forbidden City the status of the inhabitants lowered to 'commoners'. You can tell which kind of Hutong you are in based on the size of the houses, streets and the decorations on the doors and entrances to the homes.

At one point Ofer and I took a tour of a different Hutong than our own and learned about how to distinguish between the houses of different ranking individuals, it was fascinating. One of our favorite things we learned was that all entrances to the houses have a small plank of wood blocking the doorway, in order to walk into the residence you needed to step over it. We learned that the reason for this was it was thought that bad spirits had no knees, so the boards were put at the front of the house because the spirits wouldn't be able to step over them.

One of the most well known sites in Beijing is the Forbidden City and we were very eager to visit this historical place. The Forbidden City which is called the Palace Museum by locals is at the center of Beijing and was built during the Ming Dynasty. We had the impression that it would consist of one very large courtyard and maybe a few palaces but we learned that it was made up of 980 buildings, housed 24 emperors and spans over 7,800,000 square feet. Every building was incredibly ornate and some of the rooms inside had been reconstructed so we could get a concept of how the royalty lived.

Of course on a trip to Beijing we needed to see Tiananmen Square which is the largest city square in the world and the location of many historical events in China. Over 30 years after the death of Mao it was incredible to see what a huge hold he still has on much of the country. It was hard to believe that we were standing in the spot of so much ancient and current trials. We opted out of going to the mausoleum to see Mao's embalmed body.

One of our favorite things we did in Beijing was join a group in the park to do Tai Chi. They first did a performance for us and then took the time to teach us the beginning part of their practice. After just the 15 minutes of doing it Ofer and I both wanted to seek out places to do Tai Chi, it was incredibly relaxing and it felt good to take time to move slowly and be in tune with our bodies.

Our time in was Beijing jam packed with temples, tea ceremonies, Peking Ducks and strolls by the water at night. Sometimes we had to pinch ourselves to realize that we were't just in the biggest Chinatown we had ever seen, we were actually in China. Now when we see pictures or hear stories of The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and traditional Chinese performance we will be able to draw back on our memories and recall the times we saw them with our own eyes. These are gifts that we will be able to share with each other for the rest of our lives. We couldn't be luckier.