April 6/05 ~ Summer Palace

Today we visited the Summer Palace. The weather has been great (we’ve been wearing t-shirts) and we’ve haven’t had any rain while in Beijing! The gardens at the Summer Palace were beautiful. Many plants and trees are beginning to bloom. At the Palace we walked the longest painted outdoor corridor in the world. The paintings are murals of plants, birds, gardens and trees. We had a break for ice cream which Sophie thoroughly enjoyed and she got her last clean outfit dirty. Maybe we’ll have to buy something new for her tonight. The tour of the Palace included a dragon boat ride on the beautiful lake. We arrived back at the hotel for lunch and then took a taxi ride to Silk Street for shopping. I picked up a few items to decorate Sophie’s room...a butterfly kite, Chinese fan, and a China doll. Jamie has a lot of fun bargaining with the merchants. In the evening we went to a Chinese acrobatic show which was fantastic. Sophie just stared at the acrobats and then fell asleep half way through the program. By the time we got back to the room we were all exhausted and went to bed. We’ve been going to bed when we get Sophie down for the night usually 7:30pm or 8:00pm. I can’t believe that we used to go to bed around 11:00pm. It will be fun getting her used to the time change back home!
Summer Palace
Marble boat at the Summer Palace
Dragon boat ride at the Summer Palace
Acrobatic Show
Acrobatic Show