Diary July 15, 2010

Author: Blim Lugo

Today we went to The Summer Palace, near Tsinghua University. It turns out the old Summer Palace is also near our school. I really hope to see the remains of the old summer palace before we leave back to America. We had to take two taxis because we were 5 passengers, but we could have easily taken our bikes there. The problem was that we weren't too sure about the location of the palace, so we took a taxi.

The Palace was really crowded, but as we wandered deeper and deeper into the palace the crowds slowly diminished. I was also surprised at the amount of people because it was a really gloomy and rainy day.

The palace is really extravagant: it has it's own lake and all the large islands are connected by a series of bridges and walkways. It is like a small village, and I can imagine it took the population of a small village to operate and to guard it.

We were fortunate enough to go on a boat ride on the lake, although we had to peddle the boat. The peddling duty was split among us, and even the host student got to participate. We had a small snack in the middle of the lake. Afterwards we walked around the lake. We spent all day at the palace, and probably explored about half of it. This is a place where one needs to go visit multiple times to really see everything in full detail.

We finished the day by going to a restaurant outside of campus. It was like a hot plate style restaurant, but here they had an open flame with two boiling broths, and the ingredients were pored into the boiling soup. The food was delicious as always, and we had an explosion of flavors and textures in our mouths, including some peppers that numb the mouth for about 20 minutes.

	Brother James, David, and Isaac exploring a hidden pagoda at the Summer Palace.
	Blim looking at some detailed stone carvings.
	Cody, Brother James, David, and Isaac resting their dogs on an island mountain.
	The lake has some fish, which require their due attention.
	Isaac, David, and Brother James at a remote building in the Summer Palace.
	Cody, David, and Isaac looking at a millipede (or is it centipede?).
	Chinese architecture is very impressive, and their halls are all painted and adorned with statues.
	Brother James, Blim, and Isaac taking a break from the long walk.
	The painting of this type of architecture pops out at you, and is distinctly Chinese.
	Reminiscent of the Great Wall, this particular structure was high and hidden on a mountain.
	David, Blim, and Brother James at the hot pot restaurant.

//Calender