A very full day.....

This post is going to be short and sweet because we are exhausted. We started our touring day at 8am and finally settled in for the night at 9pm. Between me and mom, we took over 200 pictures just today. I am going to give you a little bit of each place we visited and will catch you up fully a little later.

We started our morning by going to the panda house at the Beijing Zoo
This panda was not at all intimidated by all the people watching him eat!

Next stop was the Summer Palace. This is where the empress of China used to spend 6 months each year.
One of the mansions on the palace grounds. It was very foggy this morning so we couldn't get great pictures of the buildings.


The marble boat at the Summer Palace
I have seen tons of pictures of this boat but they just do not do it justice. It is incredible.

Our crew on the summer palace grounds.

Next we had lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant. Our guide did all the ordering and it was served family style with everyone sharing huge dishes. We were a little adventurous and can't even tell you some of the things we ate but it was all delicious!

After lunch we visited the pearl market and were able to get some great deals on pearls.

Then it was on to the Temple of Heaven. The architecture and detail of this place was amazing.
The temple of Heaven is located in Beijing's biggest park so we were able to see some of the locals partaking in exercises, games, and other forms of entertainment.

We finished up the day tour with a Chinese tea ceremony. We sampled 4 different types of teas.
Each tea had it own special healing property.

After a very short break at the hotel (about 30 minutes) we headed back out to the the Chinese Acrobat Show. We were all amazed at the maneuvers these artists could perform.
Yes, this is 3 different girls practically sitting on their own heads!!!



And last but certainly not least.........

You knew it had to happen, didn't you?
We came across the infamous "squatty potty". Let's just say it was an adventure!!

So that's the very short synopsis of our day. We start touring again at 8:30 in the morning.

Only 3 more sleeps until Avery!!!!