Day 3 morning: Summer Palace

After breakfast we met our Beijing city guide, Tony, and took a bus to the Summer Palace on Kunming Lake. This was a really beautiful spot, a "playground" for the emperors and empresses to escape the summer heat in the Forbidden City. We took one of these dragon boats (middle photo) across the lake and viewed the famous Marble Boat, built by the Empress Dowager Cixi circa 1888 with funds that were supposed to be used to modernize the navy.

Then we walked back around the lake alongside a lovely colonnade. There is beautiful art everywhere you look....amazing!

On the way out we passed this man writing Chinese characters on the sidewalk using an ingenious system of water bottles and sponges. He painted the characters which only stayed visible for a short time because the water evaporated.