Summer Palace

The long pergola

Good morning my love! It's been another long day here for us, very busy. As usual, up early and back to the hotel late. I'm sitting here in bed watching the Japanese news channel while I'm writing this.... at least I can understand what's being said even if it's not what's happening here! :-) The day as you know started out with us pilfering bags full of pastries from the hotel again. We then went out to see the Summer Palace. Once again, very run down, dirty and unimpressive. Same building style and colors as the other temples, and no real beauty to speak of. The most impressive part of the building, was the long corridor, which was about 780 meters long It is basically a long covered pergola, built so that the emperor could spend long walks out in the open even during the wet summer. The other point of interest was the cobbled stone path next to the paved path. It was like a mosaic made out of coloured pebbles, though all very grey looking now, and was laid so that the emperor could take off his shoes and walk bare foot along it so as to massage his feet. The ancient ancestor to the masseur sandal! 

Monkey and his followers

On the dragon boat with Nan

I took some photos of the covered pergola for you, because the ceilings were decorated with illustrations of famous novels, so of course there were images of Monkey. I think it was the most crowded of all the places we've been to so far. We also got to ride on a dragon boat ferry across the lake to the other side, where your mum connected with an elderly Chinese lady about 80 yrs old and had her photo taken with her. Oh, and on arrival into China at immigration your mum and I were the first to line up pretty much, but our officer was the slowest and most disinterested and so we ended up being the last to go through! We were getting so frustrated and upset with the immigration officer, it was all we could do not to scream at him once we finally got to the front of the line! Your mum went through before me and I noticed he said something and smiled and laughed, then, he looked over slightly embarrassed at the officer next to him, who also chuckled. When I finally got through, I asked your mum what he had said and she said he he had looked up at her surprised and said, 'oh, beautiful'! Needless to say she was chuffed and forgave him his previous sins! :-)



After the Summer Palace, we were taken to what we were told was going to be a 'tea ceremony', which I was keen to see, having participated in many Japanese tea ceremonies. Unfortunately, it was just tea tasting and a sales pitch, similar to the silk 'factory' tour yesterday and the Jade factory tour we'll go to tomorrow on the way to the Great Wall. The boys will join us at the Wall tomorrow so we can climb it together. After Dr teas tea house, we went into the Houtong and had the nicest lunch we've had yet. It was at the home of a family who have lived in the Houtong district for 4 generations and was prepared by one of the ladies who lives there now. It’s famous for being "home cooking" and had the feel of a small village home like the small one's on Santorini.

Our Opera singing chef

At the Houtong after an amazing meal

The cook was very friendly and there was one other tourist group there at the same time as us. They are only open for lunch and the food was delicious. The atmosphere great too! Everyone enjoyed it! The food was quite different to what we had been having and your mum not only loved the food, but the "impromptu" Chinese opera performance by the cook after we had finished eating. :-) She pulled out of her pocket her Samsung Galaxy phone, selected the music and away she went! Very cute! She also gave us a short history of the area and her family. The small houses had tiny kitchens, couldn't believe how much she was able to prepare in a kitchen the size of our laundry! And no bathrooms! Every 50 meters or so along the streets, there were communal baths and toilets. 

After the boys soccer match in the afternoon, we went to dinner with them in the Embassy district and though the meals were mostly identical to the ones we're getting at all of the restaurants, they were better quality. While we were waiting to leave, the men got hold of a menu, something we haven't seen yet, and the meals that were on it were various and delicious looking. It was then that we realized we've been getting the basic banquet meals wherever we've been!