Summer Palace and more fun in Beijing

We took a local bus to the Summer palace in the morning. The last time we were their the lakes and rivers were frozen over and the place was in need of a new paint job. I felt it was fitting to see the summer palace in summer.

The whole palace has been restored since the last time I saw it. It looked fanastic and I was really happy to see China putting in effort to restore such amzing sights for the Olympics. We could not see all the temples due to restoration which for fine cos we needed most of the day to see everything that was open.

After a long bus ride back to the hostel we sent to the acrobatics. It was held at what looked like the local school hall. Most of the people in the performance looked around high school age. The show was great but very amateur. I liked the contortionist but it looked so wrong to see them turn themselves upside down and bend the wrong ways.

After the acrobatics we went to dinner in the expat hutong street. We had the best Indian that I have ever eatten . It was really well presented and tasted amazing. After dinner we went to the guitar bar and watch two guitarist play.

The next day we went shopping on of the big shopping centres in Beijing. They sold copies of everything. I did not need to buy anything so helpped Dad and Steph bargin with the shop attendents. Dad had a bit a of trouble getting the prices that he had paid last time in China so went to another market to try his luck. While he was gone I sat and talked to some local girls who owned a shoe store and helpped them sell their shoes. It was amazing how many people did not even notice that I was not Chinese.

After shopping we had peaking duck for dinner and I took the bus with Dad and Steph to the train station. It was really hard to say good bye as I had really enjoyed travelling with them and was not going to see them again for a while.

After farewells I tried to take the bus back to the hostel but all the buses on that line were cancelled. So after waiting for 45mins I took a taxi back. As I knew the way back the taxi driver gave me a discount on my fare! How nice is that!