Day 8

6.29.09

We woke up at 6am, and were all fed and ready for another exciting tour day by the time the bus picked us up at 8:30am. Today was the day of the Forbidden City and the Forbidden Palace! We spent around four hours meandering around and exploring the vast expanse that is the Forbidden City. There were exhibition halls for porcelain and clocks, and the sea of yellow roofed building was just incredible. After the palace, we went to lunch near our next stop, the pearl market. We learned about the life cycle of the oyster and the difference between freshwater and saltwater pearls. Afterwards, we were invited to shop around, but neither of us bought anything. Following our visit to the pearl market, we were taken to the Summer Palace. The trip started off with a boat ride across the lake that covers the majority of the palace to the other side of the palace, and we walked back around the lake to where we had started, listening to Scotty and his bottomless pit of information about the people that lived there, the history of the palace and interesting little stories along the way. After a half hour, we were back on the bus and headed for dinner. Some TFF teachers that have come back told us that by the end of these five weeks, everyone is craving steaks and hamburgers, instead of bak-choy and sautéed chicken spinning around on a lazy-susan. Though the food is rather excellent here, there’s no Chinese restaurant in the States that matches the things we’ve been eating here.