This will be quick as it is late and I am a bit tired. Today we visited the Summer Palace which is a very beautiful place. It was the summer home of the dowager empress Cixi, known as the dragon lady. The whole place has a very calming feel to it, difficult to put into words. The gardens blend beautifully with the buildings and the lake.

After that we went for lunch before proceeding to the Silk Street Market. This is basically a large shopping centre but it has fakes of everything from Gucci to Rollex and there is even a standard of fakedness! Class A is the best and items of this kind could be found on the fifth floor. Class B is next and these cold be found on the fourth floor and class C items could be found on all floors but class D was restricted to the lowest floors (1, -1 and -2)!

The sellers here were agressive! Really agressive! I managed to buy two pairs of silk pygamas for Sue for $160 but the haggling required was just unbelievable. After that we had a look at the other floors and dad bought (or was actually railroaded into buying) a few items but we really had to get out in the end because it was just too hard. Every step of the way (and I mean every single step) we were accosted by sellers. They would even grab you by the hand and try to steer you to their counter.

We left and found a little pizza place where we stopped and had a respite for a while before returning to the coach. From there we drove to the Red Theatre in preparation to see the gymnastics show but as we were early, we went and did some shopping in a local supermarket (called Merry Mart). It was as usual huge and was a real expereince. We bought a few items to take on the train the next night as well as a large glass mug. Terry, the Yorkie, and I bought one each and when we went to dinner we put it on the table to be filled with beer instead of the normal piddly little glasses that they supply! Grace the tour leader saw them and absolutely stopped in her tracks! It was the funniest thing I have seen in ages! She just doesn't get our humour sometimes. The look on her face was priceless!

Anyway, the gymnastics show was brilliant and the finale where 5 motorbikes all roared around inside a steel cage at once was really something. The juggler who bounced 8 (yes 8) ping pong balls off the floor at once was also astounding! This show was really worth seeing and was all the better fro being included as part of the tour.

Home and to bed by 10pm.

Catch you later.