Today started with breakfast at 8:00 with the rest of our traveling crew. We were then picked up at 9:30 and taken to the Summer Palace. What a beautiful place, but then again what would you expect for an Emperor. Set on 290 hectares, the Summer Palace has a number of distict areas based on function - business, social and private.After the Summer Palace we were taken to the Silk Market. This is your basic flea market set over 7 floors. Basic knock-offs of clothes, watches, jewelry, purses, luggage, etc. Lots of bargaining for everything, and very agressive sales people - every vendor is in your face trying to get your attention, and most of them will grab your arm to try to physically drag you in. The term 'personal space' means nothing to these people. The good thing is that the bartering is in good nature, and everyone seems to enjoy the game except for the fact that no matter how good you are, you know that you're paying too much. Still, given the exchange, the prices are really good.
After the Silk Market we came back to our rooms for about 2 hours. This gave us a chance to start to get things ready for our travel tomorrow. We are able to leave luggage at our hotel here, since we'll be back in 6 days. So, we're leaving 2 bags here and taking 2 bags with us. Porters will be around at 9:30 tonight to pick up the ones we're leaving here, and they'll be back again at 8:00 tomorrow morning to pick up the remaining bags.
Our last main activity for the day was a show of Chinese Acrobats. These are your basic kids, both boys and girls, who have trained since infants and are extremely strong, agile and flexible. It never ceases to amaze us how much the body is capable of.
Finally back in our room around 7:00, we ordered noodles for take-out from the restaurant downstairs and finished packing our bags. It's now 9:30, our bags have just been picked up and we're beat. Response time is pretty bad so adding the photo show is creating a challenge, so I'll just post one show of the Summer Palace for now and get the show up later.
Next time we update this we'll be in Chongqing, after a 2.5 hour flight which leaves tomorrow at 1:30pm. Before that, it's breakfast at 8:00 and the Silk Factory at 9:30 where we'll see how silk is made - from the cocoon to final product. Resting doesn't seem to be an option.
We hope everything is well with everyone.