Today started just like the rest of them. Woke up, got breakfast and headed off to another day of sightseeing. Today was the day we went the Summer Palace. At first, it seemed like it was just going to be another Forbidden City. The buildings were very similar looking. There were some buildings that had very ancient artifacts in them like Jade rock carvings, copper wine holders and even old clocks in the shape of trains etc. While walking through a little more, it suddenly opened up onto a huge lake. It was really amazing. There were buildings that were built up on a fairly big mountain that we trekked up. We were told that the lake was man made and in the shape of a peach. The soil taken to make the lake was then used to build the mountain. Seeing the buildings built into the mountain was amazing. I just wish it wasn’t as smoggy and hazy out because we could not see very far in the distance. After the walk up the mountain, we rented paddle boats on the lake, which was really fun. We had six people in each boat and had a total of 4 boats form the group. At one point, we got into a water fight between our boats. I got pretty wet but it was worth it. After the boat rides, we found our way down to another part of the grounds that was really neat. There were buildings built right along a small river. One wrong step and we would have ended up right in the water. There were nice souvenir shops in the buildings. This little strip was what I thought China was going to look like.
After finishing our shopping, we headed off to dinner. We ate at a hot pot restaurant. Each of us had our own pot and ingredients (lettuce, mushrooms, beef tofu noodles and duck blood, which I didn’t try). The soup we ordered was really spicy so I was not a big fan. It was also way too much work to eat. This was probably my least favorite meal so far. That night, we went to a Western style bar called Propaganda, where we had a good time dancing to the DJ.