The Summer Palace

Directly after the Great Wall we headed to the Summer Palace. Thankfully the kids slept in the van because this place had a lot of walking too! 

 It was commissioned in the 1700s. It's amazing to see so much history in one spot. There were lots of beautiful things to see.  To be honest though, it was difficult to enjoy them as there were literally tens of thousands of people. (AND 1/4 of them wanted to take pictures with the children! It's very rare to see an African here and well Ana has always had her picture taken.  At the end of this day though she was saying "bu yao" don't want-- a lot!)

 Because so much of the area is taken up with the lake, the park felt a lot more crowded than any other place we visited.

 I loved all the details here.  I was totally amazed at the carvings and paintings that were EVERYWHERE.  (I've decided I would like to be a restoration expert here-would never be out of work.)  Every beam is painted and a lot of the stone work is hand carved. 

It would have been nice to have spent more time here, but we had to take the subway back to our hotel and feed the starving children.  Maybe someday Matt and I can go back and take more time!