Sorry we missed a whole day, but by the end of day 2, we were totally exhausted...you will hear why now!!

Our tour left the hotel at 8:30 a.m., for the Summer Palace, which is on the Third Ring of Beijing. Beijing is composed of "rings" to the locals. The Third Ring is on the upper west outskirts of the city. The Summer Palace was beautiful, but, because it was Sunday, there were tons of people. I mean TONS.

The Chinese have no sense of personal space and they basically just walk into you. All of the Chinese people we have met so far are extremely friendly and overly anxious to make you happy. The Summer Palace is where the Emperors and their families would go during the Summer months and is composed of several different mini palaces each with their own gardens. With so many people there at the palace, it was really hard to see a lot. So we just took pictures.

After the Summer Palace, our guide, Maggie, took us to a Chinese restaurant that had a floor show! The food was just okay. From the restaurant, we went to the Beijing Zoo. We saw two pandas that would not turn around. The zoo is in pretty bad shape and extremely small.

Once we left the Zoo, we headed for the Temple of Heaven. Before we went into the Temple of Heaven, we stopped at the Pearl Market! We bought a set of really good quality pearls and earrings for the baby and a lesser quality set for me. (We are going to be able to see more pearl markets once we get to Guangzhou).

The Temple of Heaven was similar to a public park. People playing cards, musicians and flying kites. There were also many people meditating.

We finally got back to the hotel at 6:00 p.m. We were so exhausted, we just had a cup of soup for dinner and shared a pack of peanut crackers! We went to bed by 8:30 p.m.!

So far, all of the bathrooms have had a "regular" toilet in them....along with many squatty pottys, so far so good!!!

Another big day tomorrow!

Love Cathy & Guy

Next....Beijing: November 7th, 2005