Today was a tour day. We came up a few days early so we had a guide (Mr Lee) take us to some cool places.

The Summer Palace was first. We got there and the first thing that happened was that the police came up as we were getting out of the van. Lots of talking that I totally could not understand. It ended up that the car we were in did not have up to date registration. I thought we were all going to jail. It ended up to be just a little thing but when you can not understand anything, it is scary. The Summer Palace is where the last emperor spent his summers. First, this guy had 2000 wives! What was he thinking?! All the men that worked in the palace were Unics.

The gardens were awesome. They had a bonzai garden where there were trees that were 300 years old and were only 2-feet tall. The emperor had bonzai stones brought in from the south. They were large rocks with lots of holes and cracks in them.

We went to the Pearl Market. This was very cool. They let you pick out an oyster and then they ask you to guess how many pearls are inside. The closest wins some pearls. I guessed one. That was way wrong. Abby guessed 12. She was closest. It was actually 25. She got 4 pearls and of course they gave some to Emma. Emma had her ears pierced this summer, so she bought a pair of pink pearl earrings. They are very pretty.

Next we were off to the tea market. This was wonderful. China has over 2000 kinds of tea. we sampled a few. Our favorite was black tea with leeched juice and rose tea. We bought a few kinds to bring home. They instructed us on the proper way to drink tea and how to make the different kinds and this was such a neat experience. They had a tea cup that you mix the tea in and the dragon on the cup changes colors. We bought a few of those, also. The women were very nice. We told them we were adopting Olivia from Hunan province. They were very excited. I could understand when they were telling other employees "HuiLiang...Hunan". They kept smiling and telling us how beautiful the girls are and of course how beautiful Olivia is. They were asking questions about the adoption; it seemed they didn't know much about the process.

Next was the Silk Factory. It was neat to see the stages of the silk worm and feel the difference in threads. It is an interesting process. It takes 2 years to make a 3x5 rug. The rugs are gorgeous. I ended up buying one! The very talented salesman showed us the "magic carpets". When you turn the silk rug, or look at it from a different angle, the rug changes shades of color. It is a pretty dramatic change. It really was amazing to see, at least we thought so. Hook line and sinker...I had to get one.!

We went to lunch with our guide, Mr. Lee, and Zhoung (Johng). Emma was a very adventuress eater. She liked the chicken and loved the broccoli. It was all very good. For dessert they ordered us hot sesame balls with a sugared chrysanthemum filling. Very different.

Next stop was the Cloisonne Factory. There are six steps to making each piece. They put a copper outline of very detailed pictures on the piece, paint the design and then polish it. The details are fuzzy to me now but all of the pieces were beautiful. Abby bought a little box and we bought a Christmas ornament.

Emma was exhausted. She fell asleep in the van and has only been up for a few minutes since then. It will be interesting to see how long through the night she makes it as she has a bad case of jet lag. She absolutely can not stay awake. I hope she is better tomorrow night because we have tickets to the Beijing Acrobat Show.

We hope you all are doing well. Thank you so much for emailing us. The girls really love reading them! I think it helps them feel not so far away.