Day 9…again…

Time for more touring — First, we went to the Summer Palace. This was the private retreat for the royal families. It has an area of over 6 square miles, though most of that is taken up by the lake in the middle. It is an amazing place! I would love to spend DAYS there, as well as at the Great Wall, and have the chance to thoroughly explore.

In the afternoon we went to a pearl factory. They had a lot of exquisite jewelry and they used fresh water (rather than salt water) oysters. Some of the pearls mounted on rings were so big that I’m not sure how you could ever actually wear the ring. We had lunch at a restaurant on the second floor of the pearl factory.

Dinner at the hotel featured Peking style duck. It was delicious! For the first and only time at the hotel, food was served at the table rather than buffet style. They had a screen set up at one end of the dining hall. First they played a video with clips of our performances and rehearsals. When that was done, it was nearly time for Opening Ceremony to begin.

Let me clear something up here…We never played for Opening Ceremony. Long story short, it was because the Europeans were invited, then backed out. Therefore we were 300 short of the required 2,008 members.

As some of you probably know, the Opening Ceremony was mind-blowing. If you didn’t see it, go and watch it now. The performances are astounding and it is certainly worth the time. At some point I went back to my room where me and my roommates finished watching the ceremony while packing. We were checking out of the hotel the next morning, touring Beijing for one more day, then taking an overnight train to Shanghai. There was a lot to do!