The Olympic Village and an Unbelievably Phenomenal Show

I've rested now, so I'll finish the second day of our trip.  Wish I could have rested during the trip, but we wouldn't have seen nearly as much as we did!

After the wall, we went to lunch at a restaurant above the Cloissonne Factory.  The lunch was served family style with a variety of choices.  Downstairs, artisans were doing metalwork,

(I couldn't get a good angle for this one.  Look for her hands at the base of the vase in front of her face.)

painting that metalwork,

and painting bottles.

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that he's painting the INSIDE of the bottle, not the outside.  Such detail is amazing when you think it's being painted on the outside.  It's mind blowing to see that they're working on the inside of those tiny bottles.  These bottles were empty.  In the Hutong there was a place that filled the bottles with medicinal scents, such as menthol (like Vick's), eucalyptus, and others.  I feel confident this stop also subsidized the trip, potentially just by providing lunch at no charge, but we weren't given any high-pressure sales pitches here.

After lunch, we headed to Olympic Village.  The various buildings were not open to the public, but they could be seen from the plaza.  Unfortunately, the pollution effects were also very visible.  To show you, this hotel (shaped like the Olympic flame) was across the street from the plaza.  There was no fog.  That haze is all pollution.

You can see it against the Bird's Nest (the national stadium that was built for the Olympics), which is right across that fencing, but it's not as pronounced because there's really nothing of color around it.

After Olympic Village, there was an optional excursion to see a stage show.  This was not the normal Chinese acrobatics show that travels around the US, and several of us decided to pay the $50 per person to see it.  Those who didn't want to go were welcome to find their transportation to the hotel after doing whatever they wanted to do.  The bus took us to the Happy Valley amusement park area where we walked around until time for the show.  They were decorated up for Halloween.

They had an area for people to take selfies with the wisteria.  

Of course, it was all fake blossoms tied to a metal frame.

The show was in a building specifically made for this show, and they perform it three times a day.  They use the space wonderfully, extending the staging to areas beside the stage, where peripheral characters were often set.  Brief descriptions of the story line were broadcast on screens that were on either side of the state (between the main stage and those areas beside the stage).  These descriptions were in multiple languages.  Thankfully, one of them was English.  Therefore, I know this was an old Chinese fairy tale in which the Gold Mask Queen defeated the Blue Mask King and jailed all of the Blue Mask soldiers.  When peace was restored, the Queen planted a special tree and freed the Blue Mask King and soldiers.  When a major flood came, the tree convinced the Queen to sacrifice herself to save the people.  The floods subsided, and the Blue Mask King encouraged all the people to love the Queen, who then became a phoenix and rose above the land.  Here are a few shots and scenes from the show.  The entire thing was amazing, but when the stage split and the waters for the flood started flowing, I had difficulty picking my chin up  from the ground. And after the flood, there was a scene where they were dancing with live, white peahens on their heads!!  (I didn't' get a decent shot of that, though.  Still trying to  learn how to use my phone right.)

After the show, Fei-Fei (our guide) arranged for in-room massages for those of us who wanted them.  It's an experience I have never had before.  She started at my head, massaging even my ears, hitting all the pressure points.  By the time she made it to my neck, I was more relaxed that I can remember ever being.  Thankfully, she started on the right side when she got to parts of the body that had joints.  Where there are joints, this massage became VERY active.  She stressed the joints and dug deeper into the tissues than the deepest deep tissue massage I've had here.  There were a few times that she held my fingers and flicked my arm like I usually do sheets when I'm trying to get them straight on the bed.  I pointed out the scar on my left shoulder, hoping the got the hint that I was concerned about her working it too hard.  She did kind of take it easy on that side.  I only had to stop her when she was stressing the joint through my traps, which is an issue with my physical therapy, too.  At the end, they soaked our feet in a bag of hot water and teas, then finished it up with a very relaxing foot massage.  My shoulder was pain free the rest of that night!  It was the best I had felt in ages.

This was not a good day to be on our own for dinner.  There wasn't time for dinner until after the massage, but we fell asleep before we could even order room service!  I had the best night's sleep with no pain!!