Although it occurs to me now that these are mis-labeled; this is actually our 2nd day in Beijing, but our first full day.
After stopping for lunch, we visited the site of the Summer Palace. This is where the imperial royal families would go during the summer to escape the city, although in modern day it's only a half hour car ride from the Forbidden City. This is also where the ruthless Emperess Cixi- a.k.a. the Dragon Lady- imprisoned her own nephew for several years (probably a smart move on her part, considering that he was the rightful emperor.)
Here's the marble boat, a boat commissioned by the Dragon Lady, made with money she siphoned from the Chinese navy. The boat is too heavy to float, because- marble.
You can see that the skies weren't quite as blue today. The smog still wasn't anything like is reported on TV, but sadly it's definitely noticeable.
Next we stopped at a pearl factory, where we learned about China's freshwater pearl industry. Yours truly got to be the assistant that "killed" the oyster. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of that on this camera, so you'll have to use your imagination, and envision me sticking a knife into a large oyster, wrenching it open, and getting oyster & pearl guts all over my hands. Pretty awesome.
Then it was time to eat again. We definitely are not going hungry on this trip, the meals are often and plentiful. Most of them have been served family-style, so we are able to try lots of different items.
Lastly, back at the hotel, Chirag and his dad Harish challenged us to some ping pong. It was a good thing that we played mixed-doubles, because despite The practice Em & I had the other night, they still would have destroyed us. Here's a typical game between the two of us.
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