Call me a spoiled American, but after three days, I was having a hard time handling the crazy area outside our hostel, so we switched to a Holiday Inn Express in a slightly cleaner part of the city. And ate at a French bakery for brunch . It was awesome. Yes, Kelly, even I go for the western food occasionally.

We headed off on the subway to the Summer Palace. The subway in Beijing is very easy to use, much easier in terms of buying tickets than in Japan actually, but not nearly as comprehensive. The newer subway stations are like the airport, white tiles, look clean enough to eat off the floors (though I wouldn’t recommend it). The subway stations also all have security checks with bag scanners, though it almost seems voluntary at times, and no one actually appears to be looking at the monitors.

The Summer Palace was built as a retreat for the Emperors. Now it is a hot spot for locals to head to on nice days, so it was crowded with locals and tour groups (mostly Chinese), like much of Beijing. There are lots of people everywhere, all the time; in the subways, on the roads, at the sites we have been visiting. We have found that people in Beijing tend to be a bit pushy. For example, Ryan was in line to check out at a convenience store, and the woman behind him physically pushed him out of the way to check out first. We have both encountered similar actions multiple times. There is absolutely no concept of a line. I have no idea how British tourists with all their queueing deal with it here. Ryan and I have quickly learned to push our way through. But I digress. Back to the Summer Palace . . .

Like the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is huge, encompassing the entire Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. Ryan and I climbed the hill for some great views and less people, and ran across some people playing instruments and singing in a pavilion.
     

We then headed up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense for additional good views of the palace, the lake, and Beijing.

Next up was the Olympic Park. (There was a pretty cool IBM building right next to it, see the photo below). This was also hopping with activity; actors and musicians performing in the Bird’s Nest, some X-Games like motorcycle event, an international book festival, and the Fifth Beijing Olympic Park Food Plaza. Of course we had to walk through the book festival (all books were in Chinese) and to the food plaza (a little bit like Taste of Chicago, but less variety).

     
      

Ryan got some fried shrimp. Then, since he had never had churros before, decided that this was the place to try them. Churros (called ‘Spanish fruit’ at the food festival) are really popular here. Other unexpectedly popular foods include roasted corn on the cob, baked sweet potatoes, and drinking yogurt served in jars.

Peking duck was on the menu for dinner. We lucked out because the restaurant right across the street from our hotel got great reviews on TripAdvisor. It was delicious!