10/07/07 -Beijing (Summer Palace on Kunming Lake, Pearl Factory)/Wuhan
After another great (yawn) breakfast we cleared the hotel and headed for the Summer Palace. This was a retreat 35 miles from Beijing for the emperor to escape the summers in the city. It's an immense park with beautiful Kunming Lake on one border. Behind the lake on one side there are hills that contain Pagodas and other edifies. Closer to the lake are various buildings and temples where the emperor and his entourage (counselors, wives, concubines, cooks, etc) were housed. The park was quite crowded as this was the last day of the holiday and the weather was glorious. We observed an older woman performing Tai Chi in one of the quieter courtyards. She didn't seem to mind when we took pictures of her. One large group of schoolgirls around Joey's age were happy to have their picture taken with him in the middle. Tom and I noticed an older gentleman dressed in drab green army clothes. We guessed that it was the nicest piece of clothing he owned. By now everyone in our group were feeling very comfortable with each other and we walked along in various small combinations just chatting away and enjoying the great morning. All are open, friendly, bright and articulate, mixing easily with each other. Fortunately for Dave they also have wonderful senses of humor. To view pictures taken here: Summer Palace.
Then it was on to a Pearl Factory. Here we were given a demo of how pearls are extracted from fresh water oysters. Each mature oyster (10 years old or older) produces about 12-16 pearls, the older oysters producing the finest pearls . A few pictures of an actual extraction are available at the bottom of this: Pearl Factory.
The adjacent factory store was our next destination.. Again, the quality was high as were the prices. Lunch was also taken at a restaurant adjoining the factory and it was the least popular of all the meals we had eaten on the tour. The highlight was Gelato bought for all by Tom as a result of his being late to a meeting point the previous day.
As we were almost an hour ahead of our schedule, we convinced James and Wen to set us free at a large western-style Shopping Center/Mall on the route to the airport. All enjoyed the experience and were relieved not to be pestered by the in-your-face vendors. However, the sales girls were very attentive and quickly swarmed in whenever we stopped to admire anything in the department store. We also spent a few moments in a grocery store in the mall and found the prices similar to ours in the States.
From there we were bussed to the airport and were efficiently moved through security. We said goodbye to Wen and were soon on our way to Wuhan. The flight took an hour and a half. Wuhan is the 5th largest city in China weighing in at 8.5 million people. The road into the city passed by much new construction of apartment buildings. Once in the city, it looked like a mini-Las Vegas. Many buildings were trimmed with colorful lights and most restaurants were large and appeared to be quite elegant. Our next guide was Ivan and he assisted us from the airport to our hotel. On the way, however, we had to have dinner (we should “God-Forbid” miss a meal) at a wonderful restaurant that was easily the best yet. Everyone was moaning and groaning about the volume of food we were consuming. We were beginning to fear the sound of “Hello” which was our warning that another dish was about to land on the lazy susan. At the end of the 12 dish meal, everything was gone. This was delicious food; can't waste it you know – who could say when we would eat again.
After we rolled out of the restaurant (and I mean rolled out) we went to our hotel (A Holiday Inn). We found our room and took a short stroll outside at 9 PM before collapsing for the night. Outside it was bustling with people and stores. Many small restaurants were open and doing a good business. Brona professed to now being a “pro” at using the non-western toilets but still preferred the standard sit down variety.
