Our third and last day in Beijing began by meeting up with our tour mates again for the all important trip to the silk factory to learn how silk quilts were made by stretching the silk threads of the cocoon. There was also a wide variety of silk clothes and scarves available, however, there was no shopping done here. Nope. None at all. Right Eryl?
The Temple of Heaven was next on the agenda. This beautiful structure was 600 years old with a huge park surrounding it.
After lunch, it was off to the Summer Palace were a few other people apparently had the same idea we had. You could almost imagine the Dowager Empress floating all by herself on her lake, without all her subjects floating around her.
Michelle, our guide, explained how many Chinese people liked to bring their families out to the Summer Palace on a Saturday to enjoy the wide open spaces.
We must have missed those wide open spaces. Thankfully Michelle had impaled a panda on a long stick so we could usually tell where she was.
The beautiful Summer Palace.
We were able to take a boat ride across the lake instead of fighting our way back through the crowds.
Thankfully the boat turned around so that we were in the shade. The temperature was 38 degrees, not taking into account the reflection from the lake.
Once back in our room, we showered and took a break to cool down before heading out to the Night Market for dinner.
Now I know all the guidebooks suggest that eating food off the street is not a good idea, but who could pass up these cute buns?
Not us!
Then we had some dumplings and pancake thingys with meat, I mean no meat at all, in them. They were both really good. We did stay away from the pigeons, scorpions, starfish, and other better known meat on a stick. One can never be too safe.
We ended the evening with fruit on a stick before ambling back to the hotel to pack up.
The flight to Xi'an was early in the morning and we needed to leave enough time to fight the traffic of Beijing and get to the airport on time. End of Day 3.
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