On a Floating Bridge

more photos…

I had a lazy morning today and left for the summer palace at around 11:00. I tackled the Chinese bus system with relative ease. You board the bus at the front (marked by the Chinese symbol for “up”, not “entrance”) and then a bus-guard, a novel sight, finds you to collect money. It was really really cheap 1.5 yuan (about 10p) to go about 12 km. Getting an understanding with the guard was easy with a piece of paper with the destination written down in Chinese.
The journey there made it in good time for a bus, but the way back was unbearably long -3hrs- as we hit rush hour traffic coming back to Beijing.
The summer palace was fantastic. It was an enormous park that used be a playground for Empress Cixi and her courtiers in the summer months. The park had loads of traditional style Chinese buildings and beautiful gardens. I attempted to practise my Japanese by trying to help a few tour group kids aged about 10 years old who were trying to interpret the English and Chinese only café menu. I received polite refusals and unresponsive looks shouldn’t have interfered!