Today we got up and headed out to the Summer Palace after a nice (already-paid) breakfast in the hotel. It took about 45 minutes by taxi to get there since Beijing is quite a large, and very congested, city and the Summer Palace is on the opposite side of town from our hotel. The Summer Palace was quite impressive to say the least. A great blend of beautiful gardens and more elaborate buildings spread out over such a large land mass for a residence that mainly housed an Empress. Not a bad place to live. It is spread over 29,000 acres (give or take), a lot of which surrounds Lake Kunming. The buildings were quite elaborate and multifunctional in nature. I wish I knew even the purpose of half of them, but there are just so many. One of the first stops was the theatre where the Empress Dowage Cixi could watch the performances from her elaborate throne. The Summer Palace was her main residence after a time. We got to watch a performance, albeit not from the throne, of musicians, dancers and acrobats. It was a nice way to experience a little more of the traditional culture and the weather was such that it was a nice day to be outdoors for such a performance. 
On the way back, we learned the valuable lesson of asking beforehand what a taxi driver will charge to take you back to your destination. Granted, the car we took from the Summer Palace seemed slightly nicer than the one we took there, it didn't seem to warrant a charge of 6 times the amount it cost to get there. Were we taken? Hmmmm.... We've learned since to always ask for a receipt and/or that it is our right to refuse to pay. Oh well, lesson learned.
We did have a wonderful time visiting Martin and his wife Gloria and their new son Taverick. Martin is my adventurous friend's, Angela, brother. It had been about 10 yrs. or so since the last time I got to see him so it was great to catch up. Only unfortutnate thing was that we were hoping Angela's trip to China would have coincided. She was there in spirit though for sure! Martin met us at our hotel and took me, Allen and my parents back to his house by way of subway and a walk through some of the back streets of Beijing. Great walk too. These were the streets unlike the Beijing we have seen over the past day and a half. It was wonderful to see a more disorderly part of Beijing where street vendors were out on the sidewalk hawking their wares. Some great smells of the local restaurants as we walked past. We got to Martin and Gloria's apartment where we got to meet Gloria, Taverick (beatiful boy!) and Gloria's mother. After oogling over Taverick for a while, we left with Martin and Gloria to a local Hunan-style restaurant for some great food and conversation. That was the best part of the day, getting to catch up and enjoy some authentic family-style Hunan cuisine. Everyone picked from about 6 different dishes that had been ordered as they spun the large lazy susan holding all the food. That, combined with great Chinese beer and wine made for a great evening. I forgot my camera for our trip with Martin and Gloria, so I will have to post the pictures that Martin took with his a little later.
Thanks Angela for the split pants for Amelie!! I know we definitely can't get them in the States. We ony wish you were here to celebrate with us. I'll have to get a picture of Amelie with her pants and send it to you.Tomorrow we're off for a whirlwind tour of the Great Wall, Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City (not necessarily in that order). Should be interesting to see how much of each of those we can fit into a day!
Here are the pictures:- Mama and Baba at the entrance of the theatre at the Summer Palace
- Nana and Papa in the gardens of the Summer Palace
- Pretty bridge at the Summer Palace
- One of the buildings at the palace itself
- Our visit with Martin, Gloria and Taverick
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