July 29

Today we started at the Beijing Zoo where we saw the pandas - They are breeding them and then introducing the young into the wild in Setzuan.
Then we saw the summer palace where the Dowager Empress "Sissy" (Spelling?) kept her nephew a virtual prisoner. This is the man-made lake there. This was built in the 1840's.
This is a long corridor painted with scenes of famous Chinese stories. Our guide (today it's Mandy - really Wei Bin) told us some of the stories and then e-mailed some more to me. What a glorious place. I want to repaint our entire home interior in blue, gree, gold and red with scenes of all my favorite stories on the windows and crown molding.
The marble boat that was used for operas and concerts. Our guide felt it necessary to tell us that it wouldn't float...
We had lunch at a Setzuan restaurant -- too spicy for Charlotte, but I loved it-- and then saw the fresh water pearl fatcory next door. You can set up the oysters so that you can get 15-20 pearls out of each one - That's one reason they are so much cheaper than those from the sea. Spent too much again, but I've finished all my Christmas shopping - hint hint!
The pollution in this city really starts to get to you. Charliotte picked up a sore throat, and our guide helped us communicate with a pharmacy because that's the one drug I didn't pack! we got a real inside look at the Buddhist religion today at the Lama Temple because our new guide is a practioner. So we lit incense and said prayers of our own. My slacks were filthy from the ashes that we knelt in! I don't have my own photos of this because it's a working temple. However, they give you a little disc of pictures with your ticket in. If I can just figure out what to load it in, I can download them!