A Trip to the Zoo - or - China Part IV

Our second day in Beijing was pretty busy. We started off at the Summer Palace. Our first order of business was a photo op with the Grandmas of our group with all the kids. The architecture at the Summer Palace was so amazing and beautiful. I wish we could have spent more time here exploring. We didn't get to go in any of the buildings. I was a little disappointed about that because they looked amazing. But, as with everywhere we would go on this trip - it was so crowded! It would have taken forever to get in any of the buildings. We did get to take a boat ride on a dragon boat across the man made lake, which was pretty fun. After our boat ride we went to a pearl "factory" for lunch. This was really just another glorified shopping opportunity - I didn't see anything that made this place look like a real factory. It really reminded me of Russia though, inside was this beautiful pearl shop, and outside it looked like an old dumpy office building. After our pearl buying lunch, we headed to the Beijing zoo to see the pandas. Again, I was just in awe of the crowds of people! We finally made it into the panda area, and actually saw a couple of pandas. It was kind-of sad to see though, the cages are so old and dirty and run down, I wish they could have been in a better environment. After the pandas we had some free time to wander and explore the rest of the zoo. I had a blast finding random things to take pictures of - would anyone like some fries with chocolate sauce or fried pork flakes? This was a sign at an ice cream stand. The Chinese apparently LOVE all things Disney, so I had to get a picture with the "Mickey Mouse" they had roaming around the zoo.

We also posed for a lot of pictures again, the paparazzi were out in full force. And we decided to return the favor by asking a couple of adorable kids to pose for us! (I love the frogs on his jeans)

There were so many kids that we would see just squatting in the street or the side of the road. At one point we saw a mom holding her child over a garbage can while he did his business. So, when I saw this, I had to take a sneaky shot. Apologies, random Chinese boy for posting a picture of you pooping at the zoo on my blog. After our adventure at the zoo we stopped at the Olympic park. Our tour guide was very proud to show us The Cube where Michael Phelps won all his gold medals! As we were wandering around Cam saw a bunch of people drinking from coconuts, so it became our mission to find where they were selling them so Cam could get one. We finally found a HUGE food tent with all sorts of ethnic foods inside. We were supposed to be back at the bus, so sadly we didn't get to try anything, but Cam was able to quickly get her coconut. Of course, I also had to get a picture of fake Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck - on the job... and off (on their smoking break I assume). Walt would be so proud! It was a crazy day, and we were SO glad to get back to the hotel and rest our sore feet!