Elizabeth – Summer Palace

Michelle and I got up early to work out in the hotel which felt really good since we hadn’t gotten much physical exercise at UCAS. After we worked out we went down to breakfast which was incredible. They had basically everything you could think of and the food went on for forever. We enjoyed a very large breakfast before getting on the bus and heading to the forbidden city and Tiananmen square. It was fascinating to be in such an important historical spot. I also found out that in a nearby building they had Mao’s body frozen. We then went inside the forbidden city which was absolutely breathtaking. All of the buildings were ridiculously intricate, from the dragons carved into the stone pillars surrounding them to the carvings and paintings on the edge of the roof.

We learned that the way to tell how important a building was counting the number of small dragons on the corner of the roof. The rooms at the beginning of the forbidden city only had 3 or 4 but the room with the emperor’s throne had 10.

There were a lot of other visitors there and some Chinese groups of tourists asked to take pictures with Marti and Caroline. We had fun exploring the city and seeing all the temples before we got back on the bus and went back to the hotel for lunch. Lunch was just as bountiful as breakfast. There was even a chocolate fountain which I appreciated a lot! We went to the summer palace afterwards which was also beautiful. It was a big palace up on a hill right next to a lake and there were a lot of walkways and boats along the water.

In total I think we walked around six miles between the forbidden city and the summer palace. We then went back to the hotel to chill a bit before dinner. For dinner, both Michelle’s family friend and Kevin’s aunt joined us and we went to a restaurant at the top of a close by mall and had a private room. The food was ridiculously good and it was a very fun last night. When we got back to the hotel Michelle and I went to the spa and hot tub which was fun.