Wow... This Looks Like China!

After a good night rest we were ready to go. The breakfast had an awesome layout of anything from eggs and pastries to fried chicken nuggets and dinner foods. It was a nice treat.

Our guide for the day was William and one other lady named Holla who joined us. We started the morning off by visiting the famous Chinese Panda. Come on, who is not in love with these beautiful creatures. They are just adorable. We were lucky that they were up and active!

Did you know that China gives pandas as gifts to countries? However, if those pandas mate and have a baby then the baby belongs to China. It is their decision to request to have the panda shipped back or not. 

Next stop was the Summer Palace and home of the Dragon Lady. Every summer the royal family would take a boat over to the summer palace to reside in the cool grounds. The one section is a series of walkways that have hundreds of hand painted pictures. There are four round sitting areas that represent the four seasons. At the end you can see an entrance to a palace that sits at the top. 400 some stairs lead to where the Dragon Lady would go to pray. From what we have learned she was not the friendliest of people. She was a cruel and tiresome leader using the emperor as a puppet. Whenever she died the people had her buried, unburied, and then burned to make sure she could not have an afterlife. Our guide joked that they did this because the people had to carry her everywhere, including up the 400 some steps every day in a hand carriage!

My mom and I loved just imagining what it was like when no one was around taking pictures and being touristy. It was a beautiful place with the man made hill in the back drop, lake, temples, and artwork. 

The Summer Palace is free for locals over 60 who enjoy a wide array of activities. The favorite seemed to be using long paint brush the size of a cane and ain't inn Chinese characters on the sidewalk. It is pretty darn cool.

Next up we visited a pearl market. Turns out there are fresh and salt water pearls. Salt water pearls are more precious and have one per oyster. Fresh water pearls go through a process to produce more pearls by switching shells and some other business. Was a little confused by it. The oyster we opened had over 20 pearls! Some neat new information.

Lunch was pretty crazy. Overly tacky with gold and red decorations and love signs the three of us enjoyed a multitude of dishes. We had egg drop soup, Kung pao chicken, peppered beef, fried rice, and a few other things I can not remember. I do not get how these people are so darn skinny.

Next we had a tea ceremony where we learned all about the process of pouring tea, drinking tea properly, and the good effects of tea. These tours love to take you on shopping trips and this was one of them. As soon as we were done having our tea ceremony we were ushered to try to buy every type of tea possible. Hahaha typical

Our final stop on the tour was the Lama Temple. This was probably my favorite stop for the day. We visited the different temples, learned about the differences in Buddhism, and saw the worlds largest wooden Buddha.

This Buddha was seriously massive. It was carved from one tree from Nepal, was carried to south China to be carved, and then carried and placed in the temple. It is pretty wild to think about 500 years ago people carrying something this massive on a road system that was nothing more than a foot or horse path. Viewing things like this really makes me realize how remarkable people can be when they are left without technology!!!