Summer Palace

September 19th--Today almost (notice I said almost) started off bad. As we were walking to the subway station via a back alley, there was a guy standing there that made a nice hacking sound and turned behind him to spit. Well, when he turned to spit, I was walking right behind him and almost got hit by a flying spit ball. Luckily, I dodged it and kept walking like nothing had happened. This is an example of one of the things that just happens around Beijing. It is very common for men to be hacking and spitting at anytime and anywhere. Why? Our guess is because of the horrible pollution (smog). It has to cause some respiratory problems over time. Anyway, we continued onto the subway towards our destination for the day, the Summer Palace. Unfortunately, the subway did not go all the way, so we had to take a taxi the final bit. The Summer Palace was a grand, imperial playground during the Qing dynasty. While it is over 700 acres, a large portion of it is a lake, so it is easier to navigate. We entered the grounds on the east shore and immediately walked over the Seventeen-Arch bridge. This marble bridge connects the east shore to an island in the lake. From the island, we boarded an "imperial yacht" for a journey across the lake to the north shore. Once on the north shore, we were in an area full of shops and cafes. We stopped for a quick bite to eat before beginning our journey up Longevity Hill. We made our way through a couple of temples on our way up to the crowning point of Longevity Hill, the Temple of Buddhist Virtue and the Tower of Buddhist Incense. This top of the hill provided some fun rock climbing for the kids. We then began the journey back down the hill towards the exit. We exited the Summer Palace looking for a taxi. What we have come to learn is any taxi waiting at a tourist stop will try to charge you a high rate by refusing to use the meter. Luckily, we are on to this and so we just walk until we can find a taxi driving by and flag it down. It is a little frustrating, but ends up saving quite a bit of money. We went back to the apartment and regrouped before heading out to the Silk Market for some more bargain shopping. I had to have a "talk" with the kiddos on how not to seem too eager so not to spoil Dad's bargaining skills. One of the main items we were going for was toy stuffed panda bears we had seen. After seeing the panda's at the zoo, the kids had really wanted them. Once we got to the market, we realized that a Saturday afternoon was significantly more crowded then earlier in the week when we had been at the market. This ended up being a good thing because it provided more "crowd cover" which kept the sellers from attacking our children. Plus, Abby and Austin couldn't have been better at walking through and constantly saying "No Thank You!" anytime someone approached them. It was priceless! We made it through with some very successful purchases. One of the best purchases was as a result of Abby's skills. I was trying to bargain with a lady and she was not coming down to my price. Amy had walked away with the kids to another lady to see if she could get her to our desired price. Abby, concerned that we were both about to buy the same item, ran back to me and shouted, "Daddy, Mommy is doing the same thing as you!". The lady I was talking with became concerned that the other lady was going to make the sale and immediately looked at me and said, "Ok, I accept your price!". Way to go Abby! We ate dinner at the silk market to celebrate our purchases before coming back to the apartment.