Today was a BOCOG tour day, which we spent following an ex Miss Beijing (also known as Cloud Cloud, Cloud 9 or Debbie). We took the tour bus to the Old Summer Palace where we followed Miss Beijing around all day in the heat.
We then went to the New Summer Palace for lunch and they treated us like crap. It was an ok lunch but they forced it down our throats and then got us out of there as quick as they could. I asked to take a photo of one of the waitresses (as they were dressed in traditional costume) but she got really angry at me and shook her head!! Talk about cranky.
We then got to wander around some of the Summer Palace, which is an amazing garden maintained by around 10 000 gardeners! It was absolutely incredible. We climbed the Incense Tower where the Emperor and Empress lived during the summer months and we walked around the lake taking in all the scenery. What we saw was about one third of what the garden had to offer. You could spend a whole day or two just wandering around in there.
We then stuffed ourselves some more at a mediocre restaurant. It was probably one of the worst meals we’ve had. A few people are feeling sick after that meal so hopefully nothing will happen to me. We’ve all been pretty lucky so far.
After dinner we sat through the Peking Opera. I’ve never heard anything like it in my life. Paul was given 5 VIP tickets and then the rest for everyone else, so he drew 4 room cards out of a hat and I happened to be one of them! I never win anything so it was a massive surprise. Down the front you couldn’t really see the English translation, but apparently one of the English translation screens read “Shut your month!”
As a visual experience, the colour was spectacular, if only they would shut up! Someone said they sounded like cats doing… well you don’t need to know. I’m buggered now and its going to be a big day tomorrow – the Great Wall!
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