Today, our last full day in Beijing, we decided to head to the Summer Palace. It was an absolutely resplendent day, we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Pictures attached.
I think Amanda and I would agree that the Summer Palace was the highlight of Beijing for us. The buildings were very well maintained and the gardens through which you could wander were serene.
Overlooking a large lake, we hired an electric four seater boat for an hour and took to the waters for an escape from the crowds. While close to one shoreline we were able to see and overhear an older Chinese man strolling along the lake front path singing beautifully – albeit, to us, unintelligibly.
In the evening we headed down to two different “snack street markets” just off of Wangfujing Street. Both markets contained a veritable plethora of things no westerner would ever think to put in their mouth. Scorpions, larvae, tarantulas, sea horses, lamb testicles, heart (of all different sizes), whole deep fried bird, starfish, lizard. All above were skewered and in many cases these were skewered alive and not killed until cooked right before your eyes.
We happened to overhear an American tourist ask one of the vendors “what is seahorse good for?!?” to which the vendor replied “good for big penis!!!”.
Sweet pics, Brett - particularly the first one of the Summer palace and the one with the lanterns in snack street. Very cool.
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