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Published: June 14th 2009
Hello from Beijing！We arrived sore and tired after a very long flight。 Our cab driver dropped us off somewhere in the vicinity of our hotel， and with a little help we found our way to a much needed bed。 We decided to tackle the Summer Palace as our first activity since we were warned not to go there on the weekend or we would get a harsh reminder of the population of China。 After a super cheap cab ride， we entered the massive palace。 It was built as a Summer vacation place for the Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 1800's-early 1900 hundreds. The palace grounds were absolutely massive and included pagodas built only for celebrating the Empress‘s birthday. The bronze figures in the pictures are just some of the gifts she received. There were many temples on the grounds....some for Buddha, some for dragon gods, some for rain, etc. The park grounds were absolutely beautiful with more bridges than you could possibly count. We also found that some of the stereotypes about American visitors to China are true! We were stopped many times to pose for pictures with Chinese people. Of course, we figured we might as well get our
pictures taken with them too! Pat was particularly fond of the man with the orange and blue hat. We logged over 12 miles of walking before finding our way home to rest our blistered feet.
It deeply saddens me to report that we ate our first dinner at an Irish pub 😞 Unfortunately, we were far too tired to attempt to negotiate any of the Chinese restaurants near our hotel. Note the name (Durty Nelly's) for all our UF friends! Finally we returned to our room to sleep off our jet lag. Our room conveinently had no window, which was perfect for sleeping. The hallways were a trip and it marketed itself as a 'trendy' hotel. Pretty great deal if you ask us! The room had all kinds of electronics hook-ups, a double-headed glass shower (complete with curtain for room viewing), breakfast buffet downstairs, and free bottled water daily. All for the low, low price of $40/night!
We hope you enjoy all our pictures! Unfortunately we are on the slowest and most expensive internet connection ever, so this is just a sample of our pics. We'll find a better connection and post the rest of our 177 pictures
soon! We are still enjoying our bag of deer jerkey so thanks for all who hunt!
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Carolyn
non-member comment
The Gators in Bejing!
WOW Sarah and Patrick, what a trip!! Love the wonderful photos, and details of your first day there. I can't wait to see the next update. I am also sending on to Katrina. Your dad should be getting home from the Caymens and will be talking to him. Have a great day and looking forward to seeing and reading MORE!! love, Aunt Carolyn