Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Summer Palace, Etc.

Got up early and went to breakfast. Grabbed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. Mr. Xue was there to pick us up at 7:30. We jumped in the van and headed to Summer Palace. We got dropped off at the North gate. We went in and began climbing. We had some steep rocks to climb. We made it to the top to the temple. It was quite smoggy/foggy so we couldn't see very far. We made a stop at Suzhou Street. It is a shopping area along the water but you must be careful. It is narrow and easy to fall in. Luckily, no one did.

Entering the Summer Palace.

This was not an easy picture to take.

Overlooking the shopping street below.

Little Einstein asked "which way do we go?"

Having a great time.

They didn't want to stand by each other I guess.

The surroundings are so neat here.

I match the decor.

We continued on our hike. Up the rocks we go. We checked out the first temple then headed to another. The rock hills were pretty steep but we all made it up with no problems.

Here was our first steep steps.

Luckily they warned us about the hill.

Todd is taking good care of the Super Sisters.

Such pretty buildings.

Family photo op.

Continued on our path. Saw more interesting buildings and temples. At one temple there are 100 steps...2 flights of 50. We were already at the top so we had to go down, climb back up them, and then go down again. It is suppose to help you live to 100 if you climb them. If this is true Cameron is going to live to be 500 because he went up and down 5 times. Crazy boy.

These are some crazy chicks.

Cameron got a map fan. Kind of cool.

This is the coolest temple.

Here are all the steps.

5 = 500 steps climbed.

Cool.

We continued walking around. There were many neat things to look at. We saw a "band and choir" performing. Hundreds of Chinese people standing around singing along. We stopped to listen for a little bit while Todd bought the cd's again to keep in the van. We continued on our walk. We were walking through the next section and Cameron became a "Rock Star". First a group of Chinese wanted Cameron to take his picture with their two little boys. Cameron obliged. Next thing we knew one older lady wanted a picture but then it turned into 5 old ladies. They were so happy. It was funny. Cameron was a good sport especially since they were touching him and rubbing his head. ICK! As we continued walking Cameron said "Those ladies were HOT". Then laughed. As we talked about it later he said he meant temperature hot not cute hot. Goofball.

I think Aunt Sharon was trying to read the music.

A Chinese man was taking this picture as I was. What is he going to do with that?

These boys thought it was cool to get their picture taken with an American boy.

This lady was not going to let him go until a picture was taken.

Now all the ladies. Too funny. Not one of them has their eyes open.

That's a whole lot of people visiting.

We walked out the gate onto the public walk way. We decided to ride the boat over to the island. We had never done a boat ride in China so it was our first too. Mom and Aunt Sharon were waving at the Chinese trying to see if they would wave back. A couple did but not many considering there were 42,000 people there (a sign said so). Once at the island we stayed on the boat and made the return trip to where we started.

Getting on the boat.

Cameron pretending to be on the Titanic.

Grandma held on to Cameron because she was afraid he was going to fall in.

Loves his Grandma.

LOOK OUT!! We thought we were going to crash.

Super Sisters tried to get Chinese people to wave back. A few did.

Like father like son.

We got off the boat and walked towards the south gate. It was quite a walk. We, again, saw all kinds of tours with their matching hats on. A lot of people stared at us and pointed. There was also some "secret" picture taking of us.

We found Mr. Xue and headed to the Hutongs. He did a good job of getting us there. We jumped out and headed down a skinny Hutong street. We made it to the corner where we got on two rickshaws. The Wallace's in one and the ladies in the other. Our driver was hating life because he got the heavier group. He was older and he was sweating and panting. We were laughing. As we got passed by other rickshaws he would try to grab it and have it pull us. He was kidding but it made us and the others laugh. The Hutongs is a neighborhood with skinny streets and are very interesting to see. It was a bit chilly while on the ride but it was fun. Very relaxing to have someone else drive us around.

Ready for a ride.

The Hutong neighborhood.

Family photo.

Cameron is trying to give us a ride.

Maybe these two will be easier.

Complaint number...that's funny.

Rickshaw traffic jam.

Walking the streets.

An inside look at someones house.

After the Hutongs we headed to Sanlitun District to eat at the Blue Frog. We were walking to our table and I heard "Shelly". I looked around and it was Sharla and Will. They were in Beijing picking up a friend from the airport. Kind of funny in a town of 16 million I would know someone in a restaurant. We had a great lunch and then headed back to TEDA.

This is Wallace humor...all 3 of us thought the same thing when we saw the beginning of this sign.
Gotta pick my...nose, butt. Cameron went with butt.

More cheers.

Curly fries were good.

My friend Sharla joined in for a photo.

Cameron told Todd to get the video camera ready. When Todd turned it on
he started to act like a mime trying to get out of the box. It was so funny.

In the van I took a little nap while Cameron and the ladies played Go Fish. On the interstate we saw a lot of black smoke. As we came up on it we saw people standing on the side of the road and a bus completely engulfed in fire. We hoped everyone made it out safely. Scary. The trip seemed like it went fast but not as fast as the train. Love riding the train. Once home we unpacked, did some laundry, cleaned the fruit, and watched a movie...Magic in the Water. It was odd. Kind of good, funny parts, sad parts, but pretty off the wall. It had references to digging a hole to China so Aunt Sharon thought that was funny since we were sitting in China watching it. Once the movie was over mom and Aunt Sharon got ready and went to bed but the Wallace's watched a Penn and Teller show then headed to bed.