After breakfast in the morning at the hotel, we had to check out too. The next stop is the Summer Mountain Palace. The place where majority of the "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" show took place. So it's famous now and it's definitely a tourist attraction seeing how popular the show became.
Had to pay an extra ¥40 per person for a ride in a 11 seat-caddy type vehicle to stroll through the whole garden! You see... The Forbidden City is 2,350,000 square feet; the Temple of Heaven is 2x bigger than the Forbidden City and this Summer Mountain Palace is 4x bigger than the Temple of Heaven. Need a calculator? It's huge alright, no doubts 'bout that...
Next we visit Putuo Zongcheng Temple aka the "Little Potala Palace" before the first skyscrapers were built, this used to be the first tallest building in the world at approx. 12,000ft high. Again we had to walk... Also pray to Buddha at the temple. However, I must comment on this. It's a great sin to make a sale infront of God's sanctuary. I didn't go in, I waited outside but after they other tourist came out, some commented that it's a money-making country alright! They even try to sell accessories infront of Buddha and claim that they will pray for it and must always wear it, if they want their prayers to be real and strong. I mean... Come on! Have some respect for God, for heaven sakes!
Lunch at Cheng De and finally back to Beijing, another 4 hours...
We headed straight to the Silk Market for shopping and onwards to "The Place" where you can view the 2nd World's Largest LED screen, which forms a glowing canopy over the shopping center! Take note : The LED turns on at 7pm onwards only. (1st is in Las Vegas, baby)
Dinner time... Then we went to view the main stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games - National Stadium "Bird Nest", the National Aquatics Center "Water Cube" and Pangu Plaza, a 7 star hotel that has a building structure of a dragon! Later on, we took the Olympic Subway Line to pass by the Olympic Forest Park and also to head towards where out bus is.
We were checked-in at the Holiday Inn Express and we LOVE IT! Not only me! Everyone! The best hotel throughout the whole trip!!
