The Tour de Beijing

This was our last full day in Beijing, and we were rushing around to take in the important sights we had not seen. The skies had cleared and the day was hot and muggy. Our first stop was the Summer Place of the Dragon Lady. I won’t go into a history lesson here, but there was a good History Chanel show on her a month ago. When she wasn’t living at the Forbidden City, she was at the Summer Place – which is essentially a giant garden, lake and palace. The views here were spectacular and our time too short.

After lunch we saw the opposite end of the spectrum with a tour of the old section of Beijing. We visited some Chinese families still in homes to see how they live.

Then, our whole group was taken on a rickshaw ride around the neighborhood. It was kind of silly tourist thing, but fun and informative just the same. Finally, we went to the Olympic Village to see the Bird Cage and the Water Cube. Tomorrow we have to be up for a flight to Shanghai.