Summer Palace

We had a slower morning and it seemed like a very long morning since Mark and I both woke up at 3:45 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Instructions from Daddy were to try to sleep until 7:00!  At 6:00, after he had tried laying quietly listening to my ipod, we finally gave up and Mark and I went in the other room to watch the National Geographic Channel.  We're trying to stay up now to get more in synch with China time. After breakfast, Pete took Mark to the gym and then to play ping pong.  We then walked outside to find the nearest little market to buy some water for the day. Our guide, Maggie, picked us up at 10:00 to go visit the Summer Palace.  It was such a beautiful and relaxing place. It is a huge place surrounding a beautiful lake with gates on four sides of the lake. It is surrounded by trees and pretty walk ways. The weather was really nice today, warm and sunny with a nice breeze. Out in the sun, it was pretty hot. Mark REALLY wanted to climb all of the stairs leading up to the temple on the hillside. I walked as far as the inside steps and then sat in the shade of a lower building, while Pete and Mark climbed to the top. Our guide had stayed out in front. I'm attaching a picture of the stairs they climbed and the picture they took looking down onto my relaxing shady spot.  As I sat their in my quiet shady spot watching the people go by it was a bit of a surreal moment to think that I was having this solitary moment in Beijing China. I guess it takes going to the ends of the earth for a mom to have a quiet moment!  Our impressions of Beijing are so different than three years ago. We had only one day to see it last time, it was very rushed, we were very sleep deprived, it was incredibly hot and humid and seemed smoggy and polluted. This time, the air was clear and clean and the whole city seemed much more clean and beautiful than we remembered. Even the traffic seems better this time. We are staying in the business district and it is very nice. The summer palace really reminded me a lot of Epcot. The lake was about the same size and there were people sweeping trash all over the place.  It was sort of like walking the loop at Epcot with every stop being China. Hmmmm.  We've managed to get by without spending too much. Today our breakfast and a happy hour snack (dinner really) were included with Pete's platinum status at the hotel and our lunch was included in our tour!  With so many days here, it is nice to know we can get by without spending a fortune on food each day. I'm off to take Mark on his promised swim while Pete catches up on work.  Tomorrow we go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  Thursday we will see the Great Wall and Friday we have been able to arrange something very special.