[More scenes from the Summer Palace and the trip home (this picture is actually from the first set)]
The Summer Palace continued to inspire for the second half of my visit. We were short on time so I missed the Naval contracting debacle that was the Marble boat and instead Rick and I headed up the Temple of Buddhist Incense which you see behind you (note that translations of Summer Palace sites are highly inconsistent).
The walk up to the Temple was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to get a close look at some of the roofwork. The view from the base of the temple was quite satisfying, much like the hill next to the forbidden temple it gave a great view of all the elegant nearby buildings. Interestingly, the Empress Dowager and the Empress had separate courts. The Emperor was effectively under house arrest in his, although in fairness to the Empress hers didn’t seem any nicer.
Our final stop on the way out was this neat market bisected by a canal. There were drawbridges on both sides and all the works in it had traditional garb on. I didn’t buy much at all but it was quite fun. Particularly because Rick haggled hard, walked away, and then ultimately the merchant gave in to a final bit of negotiation from opposite sides of the canal!
Took an unmarked taxi back and despite attempts to offer overly high prices back we got the same rate that we got over. After a subway trip back I hit the post office and then got a taxi out to the airport. The drive wasn’t that bad although apparently it can get really backed up by traffic. Beijing Airport was on the whole rather nice and friendly, United even upgrade me to an exit row. Sadly there were no outlets and no places to mail postcards once you got past security. I bought some Olympic mascots from a merchant that promised to drop the last few postcards in the mail. Obnoxiously we had our liquids taken from us, again, when boarding the plane. So I lost the iced chrysanthemum tea I bought after getting past security. Not cool!
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