Geoffrey: Summer Palace and Exploring Beijing

The hotel beds are much softer than the traditional, firm dorm beds we were staying in the previous night. Accordingly, we slept well after a family style meal a locally recommended restaurant. I loaded up on an American-style buffet breakfast and we set out for the Summer Palace with our tour guide. Unlike the past few days, it was much colder at the Palace. The world’s longest corridor was especially windy which may be nice in the summer, but definitely not when it’s 40 degrees out. The tour guide was knowledgeable and shared many pieces of China’s history.

We returned to a street market which featured some diverse food options. They had most meats on a stick as well as an assortment of fried scorpion, snakes, beetles, and millipedes. Although I wasn’t feeling any scorpion, I did have some good dumplings at a restaurant in the mall. I tried a few new things today too, including candy hawthorne, green tea ice cream and bubble tea – all of which I enjoyed. The best part of the day was definitely dinner at the Peking Duck restaurant. Thanks to Jenny we were able to eat at another locally recommended restaurant which was wonderful. The duck and other dishes were by far my favorite food that I’ve had on the trip.