Summer Palace and the Great Wall

The next morning we finally joined the 28 others from our group and headed to the Summer Palace. May 1 weekend is a big holiday in China and Beijing was jammed with people. If was wall to wall as we tried to navigate the Summer Palace grounds. we did have a short boat ride across the lake and picked the bus up for the trip to the Wall. We stopped for a Chinese lunch (provided) at a Friendship shore. They are stores where the prices are sky high but the quality is backed by the government. Finally the Wall. It is all you think it will be. We picked the "hard" climb - what else is new. One advantages was that although it was very steep, there were very few people on it and we could enjoy the beauty of the achievement of building the Wall. I should mention that there were vendors up on the wall as well as all over the entrance area. I did find something of interest that I bought. After it was back to the hotel and a meal with Chinese dancers and entertainment.
 

Friday saw us at Tienanmen Square except this time it was wall to wall people. The photos will bear proof of that. Then over to the Forbidden city. Now that was crowded beyond belief. It was more than we imagined with the size of the ground and the number of buildings. Then it was time for lunch - what else Chinese food Chinese style and the trip to the ship. We finally boarded the Diamond at about 5 in the afternoon.
With the 13 hour time change we are still a bit off; awake at odd hours. Our table has 8 people at it and they all know Bob and Marilyn who got us together for the trip and then had to cancel for medical reasons. We only knew Nanette and Jerry from a previous cruise. However because of the pre-tour we have plenty of familiar faces. The ship currently has about 1900 people on it. We are headed to Japan on a sea day. I will give you an update of Dalian later. Cheers