On Thursday the 21, my second day in China, we headed off to Beijing to see the Summer Palace. Allen jokingly complained that I had chosen one of the largest things to see in a rather distant area. So, that morning we got an early start and headed over to a restaurant about 1 block away. It is an interesting restaurant, one group of people serves breakfast and then another group serves lunch and then a 3rd group serves dinner. This way they split the rent and all have income. The morning group serves a healthy fare of baozi (little dumplings like humboa), fried filled pancakes, and a plethora of soups including a soy bean (like soy milk), red bean, and tomato and egg soup.
After breakfast Allen and I hopped on a bus and went to the HauiRou bus yard. Then we got on a large bus labeled kuai, “fast”, and headed into the city. This bus ride takes about 1 ½ hours and dropped us off at Dongzhimen bus station in Beijing City. We were lucky and had seats so I fell asleep. Because it is labled “fast” it only makes 6 stops along the way but it is really rather slow. After arriving in at Dongzhimen Allen asked for directions and we hoped on a bus that took us to the National Zoo, where we again transferred to a bus that finally dropped us off at the Summer Palace. In all, it took about 2 ½ hours, maybe longer, to arrive at our destination but it was sooooo worth it. Just check out the pictures below. It poured for the first 1/3 of our time in the Palace but it cleared up eventually. Then, I made the mistake of wanting to walk to the other side of the lake, when for 10Y we could have taken a boat across. It was a loonnngggg walk. But, in about 1 hour we did eventually make it to the island on the other side of the lake.
At about 3:30pm we hopped on another bus to head over to Tiananmen and arrived at about 5pm. Beijing, even with only ½ the cars on the roads due to the Olympics, still has traffic and the buses stop often. Anyway, we ended up running out of time and skipped Tiananmen and headed for the subway right by our bus drop off. It was so crowded that they were closing the subway entrance and only letting people enter in time dispersed bunches. We eventually manage to take the subway back to Dongzhimen. Before heading home we went down the street about 4-5 blocks and had dinner at Pizza Hut. Then we headed off on our bus back to HuaiRou. We fell asleep again and when we finally arrived it was raining very hard. After getting off the bus we walked home in the dark and heavy rain. I was cold and couldn’t stop shaking plus I had no idea where we were but we DID make it home. After drying out a bit, watching a little Olympic Volleyball, and trying to learn a new card game I was pooped and went to bed.
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