Beijing Day 3

We got to see the pandas today! They are so cute and look super cuddly, but they really can be quite aggressive. We were able to see 3 of the pandas out and about and a couple of them were busy at play, climbing on and around their play set in the yard. I watched for a bit, but it was a cold, rainy morning and I got chilled so I waited in the building until it was time to go.

From the zoo, we went to tour the Summer Palace. Unfortunately, the name 'Summer' Palace wasn't enough to warm things up! It stayed cold and rainy, so I stayed chilled. And because I was chilled, I didn't take in as much as I may have had I been more comfortable. In any case, it was an ok tour but others in our group were not overly impressed by it, either. When I think of touring a palace, I think of a single building that is opulent and over-the-top luxury. That's not what this was like at all. There are several buildings and there are only a couple you can actually go into - the rest is all outside and seeing the grounds. Part of our tour was on a boat and that was kind of cool.

After the summer palace, on to lunch at a Chinese restaurant! This was my least favorite of the last 3 days, but it was good enough to provide some warmth and refueling. The best part was that after lunch when we went back to the bus it had stopped raining and the sun was shining! :)


Olympic Park was our early afternoon stop and it was really cool! The stadium is called the Bird's Nest because of the way it was designed. The supports and structure criss cross in a seemingly random pattern that resembles a bird's next. And the water sport building is called the Water Cube because it's a square building. The Chinese symbolism is that Heaven is round and Earth is square which is another reason for the shapes of the buildings.

Last attraction of the day was a tour through the Hutong - these are small dwellings built very close together and in very narrow alleyways. It's where the non-ruling people lived in old Beijing. Most of these dwellings have been in the family for many generations, passing from parent to child. Our Hutong tour was in rickshaws which were fun - not amazing, but nice as a different experience.

We arrived back at the hotel fairly early today (about 3:30) so we decided to walk around and check out some of the shopping. We saw several high end shops along the street near our hotel and then we spotted the narrow alleys for the street market! That's the kind of shopping I was looking for. We wandered around in the street market for about an hour and ended up on a street that had food stalls. I did not linger for a couple of reasons - first, the smell. I was feeling rather sick to my stomach just from the smells along the street. Secondly, the bugs - fried and skewered on a stick and for sale. GROSS! Oh - and we saw one bug that was skewered on a stick, but was still alive! That was certainly enough for me (and Linda) and we headed for the end of the street while the others lingered and took pictures.

At that point I had had enough so I walked back to the hotel, stopping for a bowl of beef noodle soup on my way back. Tonight will be an early bed time because we have to leave the hotel at 3:40 AM to get to the airport to catch our flight to the next destination. Not happy about that wake up time for sure!