Today we visited the Imperial Summer Palace–the seasonal home of the Emperor and parts of his court.  Much of the architecture was reminiscent of that of the Forbidden City, but with the addition of a giant man-made lake on which we enjoyed a ferry ride.  A long covered walk lines the lake for hundreds of meters.  Along the walk are thousands of paintings, which have to be redone every several years.  Art students in Chinese universities do the bulk of this work, with help from their professors on the larger pieces.

The Summer Palace

The Marble Boat, one of the Summer Palace’s main attractions (it doesn’t actually float).  Only the base is marble, while the top is wood.  

A collection of girls asked for a photo with one of our taller Penn Staters

Next, we walked the campus of a Chinese university, of which there are about 20 in Beijing.  The campus did not have as refined an aesthetic as Penn State, but did have some beautiful angles.  Along the way, we stopped and took a picture with a tour of Chinese teenagers, who we think were on their equivalent of a college visit.  Competition for colleges is even fiercer here than it is in the United States, and admittance becomes a focal point of pride for an entire family. 

At this point in the day, we happened to be running ahead of schedule, so we stopped by another market, similar to the Silk Market, to try our hand at bartering once more.  With the knowledge from the day before we did much better, and found some nice items at a fraction of the price that would have been taken in the United States.

In the market, we met another bunch of Americans who turned out to be in Beijing with a group from the Woodward skateboarding company.  On the way out of the market, their bus was right next to ours, and none other than Ryan Sheckler and Tony Hawk happened to be getting off.  We put the bus ride on hold for a few minutes for some photos (I didn’t take any, sorry), and spent most of lunch guessing at the odds of running into the world’s most famous skateboarder in China. 

Our last destination was an exotic foods market, which had everything from sugarcoated fruit and fried ice cream to sheep gonads and scorpion.  Some of our more adventurous eaters tried their hand at the latter delicacies, and everyone found something to try (even if it was only ice cream). 

Dinner continued the trend of lazy susans, but in addition included a dumpling bar with six or seven varieties from which to sample.  At the entrance to the restaurant, a wall of glass allowed visitors to see into the room where the dumplings were made and watch the process first-hand.  It takes three people to make them–one to roll out the thin, circular pieces of bread, one to gather the correct fillings from trays of vegetables and meats spread out on a table, and one to pinch the bread around the filling.

Tomorrow we will visit the Temple of Heaven and spend some time with administrators, faculty, and students of the Chinese School of Mining and Technology.  In the evening, we’re boarding an overnight train for Dalian.  I’m running a couple of days behind on my blogging, but should be able to catch up during the ride.  

P.S. Have you figured out the title yet?

Location: Beijing, China