While in Tianjin, Judy's mom and dad insisted we go to the famous Goubuli restaurant which has been around for 150 years. Impressive longevity but the food was nothing spectacular.

The Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium. It's supposed to look much cooler at night with light emanating from all the glass areas.

Another arena next to the main stadium.

Judy flanked by her mom and dad in front of the stadium.

We visited Judy's mom's office in Tianjin. Here, we're sitting below a framed piece from a famous calligraphist.

Judy's mom has a personal driver (not uncommon in China) who drove us around. Here we're entering Beijing.

There was a ton of construction going on throughout the city. This looks like a pretty cool building being built.

We did a bit of shopping and I had to snap this shot of all the fake iPods.

Judy and her mom both wanted to get pedicures so I thought, "what the hell?" It was my first pedicure ever and I've gotta say that my feet have never felt softer!

We had dinner at this place, a somewhat high-end restaurant where your party is served in a private room complete with flat-panel TV.

Judy, her parents, and me in front of the restaurant.

Judy loves massages so we went to this massage parlor whose claim to fame is that the masseuses are all blind and have to undergo special training. Supposedly,>>>

The next day we visited the National Stadium, the main site of the Beijing Olympics. With only 11 months to go, I had expected the construction to be a bit further along.

During our previous trip to China, I had a field day taking pics of English signs that were totally incomprehensible. This time around, there wasn't as much fodder, but>>>

We had already visited the Great Wall during our last trip to China. It was cloudy then and so we thought we'd check it out on a sunny day. It wasn't much different.

Another funny sign. I presume that "Don't Call in Thunder Storm Day" means that you shouldn't use your cell phone during a thunderstorm.

A little bit of advertising for the Olympics along the Great Wall.

The area we went to last time was better because it had really steep steps which helped keep the hordes away. In contrast, this area was relatively easy to walk>>>

Of course, the further we went, the less people we encountered.

A view of the Great Wall snaking through the mountains.

Continuing our way towards the top.

The last time we were here, some areas had steps that were 2-3 feet tall which was kind of fun. Although some sections of this area were pretty steep, the steps were all pretty low.

VIDEO: Pano from the top (or at least as far as you're allowed to walk).

Self pic with the Great Wall in the background.

We ran into a fellow American who offered to take this pic for us.

The next stop was to visit the Olympic site for beach volleyball. Cool sign for beach volleyball!

Unfortunately, the actual site was off limits as it was still under construction. These signs were pretty interesting though.

This sign shows the construction of the main sand volleyball court. It looks pretty nice!

It looks like this one talks about the type of sand used on the courts.

And this one looks like it's showing how the sand was brought to the site.

From Beijing, we headed to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). This is the entrance at the base of the mountain. Most people take the cable car up, but we decided to hike it.

The path up was well maintained so it was somewhat surprising that we saw so few people hiking up.

It did get kind of steep in some places so perhaps it's really not that surprising. Here, Judy and our guide, Ivy, climb up a steep set of stairs.

We were told that most of the supplies had to be carried up manually.

I never got a satisfactory answer as to why they didn't just haul this stuff up in the cable car.