Lake at the Summer Palace

Summer Palace

Hall of Longevity (top)

Ethan, Mom, and Cassie (bottom)

Temple of Heaven

First sights in China

Today we were able to see the Summer Palace, the Beijing Zoo Pandas, and the Temple of Heaven. The thing that is truly astounding is how old the culture is here. The Summer Palace (as the name implies) was the summer home for the royal family during the Ming and Qing (pronounced ching) dynasties. It is an elaborate attempt at bringing the gardens of Southern China to the northern capital of Beijing. The lake is man-made as is the hill of Longevity. There are many parts of the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven that are undergoing restoration for the 2008 Olympic games. We made a brief stop at the zoo to see the pandas. They live outside in the summer and inside in the winter. We had lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant and it might surprise many of you to know that I ate more of the food than James. They had some kind of fried fish that I thought was quite yummy. We even had a go with the chopsticks. We wrapped up the day seeing the Temple of Heaven where we saw many Beijing locals playing cards, musicians playing unusual instruments, and even one dancer. Parts of the Temple of Heaven were built in the 1500’s which is just crazy to think about.
We will be seeing the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Tien An Man (one of these days I’m going to spell it correctly I just know it!) Square. Our body time clocks are still adjusting. We are waking up at 4 in the morning (which does let me get in a little computer time) and crashing early. Hopefully we will be a little more adjusted for when we get Annelise (or maybe the crazy hours will work in our favor). The day after our Great Wall visit will be the greatly anticipated “Gotcha Day”. Though I enjoy the sightseeing, I am anxious to have her in my arms.