We set out with renewed vigor after the inspiration of the great wall and a good nights sleep. The Summer Palace was first on the list for the day. About 15km from the town centre the place is beyond massive. We strolled around for hours checking out the vast gardens, palaces and temples. Taking photos was a bit of a flop as the smog was particularly bad today, but it did feel marginally cooler. The ‘Marble Boat’ (no it doesn’t float) was odd, but not half as odd as my icecream – Mielie flavoured ice cream wrapped in what could be described as edible ‘plastic’. Blargh!

We took a ferry (Dragon Boat – but not really) across the lake to visit one of the islands and swallowed an excellent hot-dog for lunch. A very long walk around the lake (dodging the Safas from yesterday) and up through the spectacular Buddhist temple where V and I had a race up either side (well V ran up the stairs, I watched and laughed) got us to the top of the mountain/hill and back onto the subway shortly thereafter.

Next stop. Another highlight and engineering marvel. The Olypmic park with the Birds Nest Stadim and the Cube Indoor Arena. Wow. Awesome. Like a 100 000 hotdogs awesome. There was some show on so it was not worth our while to go into the stadium, but wow again. It is looking a bit grimy though – that smog again. V tried a can of herbal tea – not recommended – I’ve taken to orange juice.

We then headed over to the Wangfujin shopping area in search of a few items including chopsticks and a big map of China what more do you need to plot domination ? The snack street was filled with more gross looking food and creepy crawleys on sticks. If you can push a stick through it the Chinese will eat it!

V is usually brilliant with navigation but when she gets it wrong – oh boy! We walked forever and ever to get home. Through some very scary looking areas and detouring around city block sized construction sites where the municipality has demolished the old Hutongs (fiendishly narrow and dingy streets not unlike slums but that are apparently ‘full of character’) to be replaced with shiny new buildings. People are up in arms (well you would never know it) about the transformation – I’m in two minds.

The city is vast but we have been using the metro system most of the time. At 20p a ride to any destination it’s reasonable, clean and easy to use but the trains are not as frequent as London. The other way to do it would be to hire a bike. Since everyone here rides it should be fine but the traffic chaos put us off.

The last stop before getting back to the hostel was sups. More rice and fried something. Quantity was too much and it seemed expensive – we think they billed for plates ?

[Pictures: Mielie icecream, The Birds Nest Stadium, Fried Something]

– Posted from my iPhone