An early start at 8:00 with arrival 18miles away at the Summer Palace about 1.5 hours later. Traffic is sheer gridlock. Summer Palace is where last Empress of Qing Dynasty spent the summer after traveling from the Forbidden City. We learned quite a bit about the dragon lady who with poisoning rivals and Machiavellian machinations managed to be the power behind the throne of baby emperors for many years. Quite the complex with a beautiful partially natural and partially man made lake- Kuming Lake.
Then to the Pearl Market where Rick showed us how to buy pearls and then hoped we would. Most of us resisted then off to a buffet lunch that was passable.
Afternoon was spent at Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. Since Gary is still without luggage we managed to negotiate good prices for some hats. Tianamen Square is huge with thousands of tourists wandering about. Then off to the Forbidden City which is absolutely indescribable in its magnitude and complexity. At one point thousands of people lived in it- concubines all their lives never leaving a small residential area unless called upon by the emperor. We are all ready to go back and watch the Last Emperor again as it was actually filmed in the Forbidden City.
Then it was a Chinese style round table dinner- ok food but nothing exciting.
With most of the group jet lagged it was an early night.
Most notable impression is that my eyes are burning and the smell of coal is unmistakable.
Folks on the tour seem very nice but tour life is a bit of an adjustment.
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