Seventeen Arches

It's Shannon this time. Hi, everybody!

Today Matt and I went to the Summer Palace, northwest of the city. It was created several hundred years ago as a summer spot for emperors who wanted to get out of Beijing's heat, mostly burned down during the Opium Wars in the 1860s, and rebuilt in the latter part of the 19th century by Empress Dowager Cixi (a fascinating person).

It was incredibly beautiful. You can see why someone would want a summer house like this. We walked all around the grounds and buildings, which surround a big lake. You could spend several days there and not see everything. Highlights include a 5-ton statue of Buddha, a marble boat, and a bridge of 17 arches leading out to an island where the Empress would go to worship. There were lots of people there, but it still felt very peaceful. We've also been lucky enough to have fantastic weather so far.

This is a picture of Matt next to the sign for the "Hall for Listening to Orioles," which he was very excited to see. He was disappointed to learn it had nothing to do with baseball broadcasts. Now we're off to dinner from street vendors - we're excited to try that after two nights of nice restaurants. On Sunday we went to A Fun Ti, which has distinctive food from a Western part of China that's a blend of Chinese, Indian, Mongolian, and Kazahkstani food; on Monday we did a Szechuan hot pot.

Till tomorrow!