July 13th in China, Summer Palace and a Peking Opera

We loaded up on the buses for our last day of touring with BOCOG. Our first stop was the Summer Palace. We made our way through the gate and it was so amazing at the first view, because you look out over the lake and you can see a couple bridges, a couple temples and the palace across the lake. I took several pictures here and was able to also find some interesting people. One elderly man was sitting by the lake with a loaf of bread, feeding the fish. It was so cute. Another couple of kids were enjoying popsicles. It was just a great place and everything was so nice. Our group walked around and we were all able to enjoy the sights, eat some ice cream, and enjoy the people. I was actually interviewed by one of the television crews that was following us around that day, so that was neat too. Our group took a walk down the longest corridor there, it has actually been in the Guiness Book of World Records. After our tour guide told us the history of the summer palace and the corridor we were able to take an hour to do our own thing. I went out on the lake on one of the dragon boats with a couple other people from our group.
It was so pretty and I was able to take pics and lots of video from there. I also sat and talked to a young chinese girl and she showed me her chinese barbie doll, which I took a picture of. After our boat ride I made my way toward the historic Marble boat which was also near a souvenir shop. I walked around the shop and after looking at the odds and ends it was time to meet the rest of the group. We were able to enjoy a nice lunch in a restaurant that is actually a historic part of the Summer Palace estate. It was a good lunch and we were able to relax before leaving and hitting the road on our way to Yuan Ming Yuan park. It was at one time known as the "Garden of Gardens" in China until it was destroyed, today the ruins are all that remain. From what I saw it must have been a very beautiful place, there were many stone carvings, stone structures, places where fountains once where... one thing that is still standing however is a temple in the middle of a huge maze. It was apparently used for a game with lanterns. The emperor would sit in the temple/gazebo stone structure in the middle and all his "ladies" would be let go into the maze, each carrying a lantern. This way the king could see where they were and watch and enjoy as they all tried to be the first one to reach him. After I walked around and photographed the ruins I walked to another part of the park, the lake, where they were having a huge locust display. The flowers were so pretty, and dragonflies were everywhere. After we left the park we were escorted to dinner, which is where we had this delicious soup served to us, that tasted like cream corn. LOL And because I was craving some familiar American tasting food, I ate the heck out of that soup! haha! After dinner we drove to the theater and were seated to watch a traditional Peking Opera. The costumes were cool, the show was colorful and was not too hard to follow because there was a screen with english subtitles translating the opera. It was an interesting experience and I was happy to have seen it. After the opera we headed back to the hotel and I was ready for the next day which was a free day! :)