Was going to cycle to The Summer Palace today but the hostel said it would take about 2 hours so I changed my mind and decided to try the rail system. Besides it was the one form of Beijing transport I hadn't tried yet. It was actually very good, just 2RMB per trip to anywhere on the system. Had to change to a bus to the Summer Palace and had to ask a local which direction. My sense of direction has been terrible here, I think because the sun is in the south instead of the north and its a bit disorientating. Spent the whole day at the Palace as it is massive. Most of it is taken up by Kunming Lake but the grounds are still huge. A very impressive Buddhist temple overlooks the lake and the whole area is very picturesque. I also discovered another buddhist temple behind which is still in original state and the architecture was quite different. This palace was a playground for the imperial families to get away from Beijing and also includes Suzhou Street which is a reproduction of part of the water town of Suzhou, near Shanghai. Also saw the famous Marble Boat commissioned by Empress Cixi. Altogether a very impressive area. Left at about 4pm to give myself 2 and a bit hours to get back to the Hostel as I had booked a seat for the Kung Fu show and its just as well I did as I went the wrong way again when I left the last metro spot and got totally lost. I don't have a good map as it only shows the main roads and the blocks are not your standard size Aussie blocks, they're massive. Ended up asking a local who just happened to speak excellent English and I was on the right way. Also Krissy and Daisy both rang me as I was trying to find my way home so it was all pretty hectic. I ran the last 15 minutes and got home with 15 minutes to spare.
Only two others were going with me Stevie and Josh from Melbourne who happened to be the first Aussies I had met in Beijing. I turned out to be the first they had met. Then when we got to the show, there was a Chinese family next to us but they were also from Melbourne. The show was good but there wasn't really anything I hadn't seen before and I was a bit disappointed that the dialogue was dubbed and in English, with Chinese subtitles. The show in Kunming was better I thought. However, Stevie and Josh seemed to enjoy it so that was good.
The show finished at 9pm and by coincidence we met up again at Fish Nation which serves non-Chinese food like Fish and Chips and spaghetti. So thats two nights in a row I didn't have Chinese but I intend having Peking Duck tomorrow.
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