Summertime Cookout at the Summer Palace

Last time I wrote, I was able to post a few extra pictures of random things from around town. We went out to a place near the Worker's Stadium (an Olympic event) and had a really fun time. Most of the Chinese are really excited when foreigners enter their shops or clubs because they know most likely we'll be spending money there. For this reason alone, they treat you like royalty. At the club we went to, a few of the girls were approached by the manager and shown a special VIP room and given cards to received half-off drinks M-Th. Also, after showing the girls the room, the manager came over to our table and asked us to come back. I think it is easy to get used to this part of China.

The next morning we got up bright and early to go to the Summer Palace. The only people from my apartment who went were Rachel, Jimmy and myself. We met up with Devon at the group meeting spot. Devon hadn't gone out with us the previous night, so she was pretty well rested. The rest of us had to deal with the 8 o'clock wake up call. Heading to the Summer Palace, which was a place where the empress vacationed, isn't too bad. It used to be considered a very remote place outside of Beijing, but just like any other city, the far suburbs eventually get swallowed by the urban sprawl. We took the subway from one end to the other and got off. When we heard we still had a bus ride to go, we asked our leader if we could grab a bite to eat and take a cab and meet them later on. She said this was fine and this gave us a chance to eat and rest before we walked around all day. We were all glad to separate from the group. They usually go at a slower pace and everyone knows its much easier to do things like this when your not in a large tourist group. Don't worry, our leader isn't a tour guide, so we didn't even miss any cool facts. We ate at a noodle place, and it was more difficult than usual to order food because we were in a very non-tourist part of Beijing. Eventually we got our noodle bowls and ate and caught a cab to the Palace.

The Summer Palace is awesome. It sits right on lake and has many different places to walk around and enjoy the weather. The views are spectactular and it is amazing to think that the ancient Chinese rulers used to walk around the same place, enjoying the same scenery. They lake was full of paddle boats, so we decided to rent one out. Another thing I really love about this country is the exchange rate. It allows for us to do all of the things and not really have to worry about money. The boats were really cheap and we went off wandering around the lake. It was sunny and pedaling around make it really hot. We went to the other side of the lake and looked at all the grass and trees. There were bridges and people with their families and it looked like a great place to have a Summertime BBQ. We returned the boat after an hour and a half and walked over the the Tower of Buddhist Incense. this is one of the tallest points at the Summer Palace. To get there we had to walk through one of the longest covered walkways in the world. It has thousands of hand painted pictures on the ceiling and goes on forever.

When we get to the Buddhist tower, we had to walk up a few long flights of stairs before we got to the top. The views were amazing. You could see the outskirts of Beijing and all of the boats on the lake. Inside the Tower of Buddhist Incense was a bronze casted gold guilded 1000 armed Buddah. It was awesome even though we couldn't take pictures. Inside, a few people were praying. We walked a little further up to a smaller building with a golden Buddah statue. That was really cool. Again, no pictures, but it was big.

We poked around at the top for a bit. Stopped to rest on some rocks and look out at the view. We headed down and took a rickshaw back to the subway stop. That was a fun ride back. A rickshaw is a two seat carriage pulled by a bikeman. Our man was older but he did pretty good. It was a nice relaxing ride, except for the time we went through an intersection and the other time we went one way on the highway. I was glad that Jimmy and Rachel were in front of Devon and I because they were the ones that were getting honked at. Some of the oncoming traffic were flashing their lights at us too. We made it safely to the next exit ramp and even though we were still going the wrong way, there was far less traffic. We got to the subway, took it back to our apartments, and decided to look around a new mall they just built by us. We were all exhausted. We had been walking around all day outside. We hadn't eaten since the noodle place and we just wanted to relax. The mall was really nice. It wasn' crowded at all and a lot of the stores were American priced. We ate again and went back. I just relaxed at home and crashed.

The game plan for today is to get another massage with the roommates, going to see Gymnastics finals today and when I get back we're having a huge going away party for all of the 14 day volunteers. Oh-- and speaking of volunteering, I'm going to the orphanage soon.

Media links: Video of Me, Rachel, and Kelly on Wangfujing Catapult!

Summer Palace