Saturday, March 21 - The Summer Palace, Olympic Village and Old Beijing

We visited the Summer Palace, the Imperial Garden in the Qing Dynasty.  This is the Summer Palace of the Dragon Lady.  She was in power for forty-eight years.  She ended the emperor regime after the Boxer Rebellion.  The Dragon Lady sounds like quite a character - she wouldn't let anyone drive her as she didn't want anyone in front of her, so she took a dragon boat down the canal from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace.  No one was allowed to be on the streets when she was in the boat, as she didn't want anyone to see her.  Interesting as she spent so much time on her hair and skin, which was all done by eunuchs.  The Empress Dowager's name was Cixi and she is remembered as one of China's most powerful women.

First of all the "happy house" was rated 4-stars!  Very important.  Secondly, after taking our first photo here I turned and hit a very sharp rock right on my chin bone and bled like a stuck pig.  Sure I took bandaids, but they don't work when they are in your suitcase in the hotel room.  Luckily our guide, Tina came to my rescue.

Then we did a rickshaw to visit old Beijing.  Great fun riding through the Hutong area.  We ate in a local chef's home - his hands were beat red from cooking.

We had lunch above a Cloissone Factory.  After lunch we had a tour - I didn't buy anything as we have many pieces of Cloissone.  It was interesting to see how it is made.

We went to the Olympic Village and saw the Bird's Nest and the Aqua Dome.