I'm happy to report Kim & I have recovered from our dinner last night. So far, three out of six people experienced digestive issues. Kyle fell sick in Tianjin, he ate some bad lamb.

I have an update on the different Lay's flavor chips Kyle has tasted. So far, his favorite has been "Numbing & Spicy Hot Pot", gave a thumbs up to "Seaweed" and thumbs down to "Cheesy Lobster". Kyle has persuaded me to try different flavored Oreo Cookies. Strawberry flavored is addictive and lime flavored is next.

This is our second last day in Beijing. Today, we ventured to the Summer Palace, the full-time residence of Empress Dowager Cixi; she is remembered as China's most powerful women. I did not enjoy this particular tourist attraction, it is not well maintained & certain areas smell like urine. I don't recommend visiting this site, unfortunately, the nicest part of the Summer Palace is the view of Kumming Lake.

Paint is peeling from most of the buildings and there is litter throughout the palace despite the hard efforts to pick up garbage from the site staff. Sadly, most of the 14,000 scenic paintings found in the Long Corridor have faded. Tourist no longer has access to the Marble Boat, May remembers walking inside the structure 30 years ago. Empress Dowager Cixi diverted money from the imperial navy to build this structure, it is made of wood, but painted white to look like marble.

We learned a valuable lesson today, when traveling long distances in Beijing use the subway system and for short trips use the bus as transportation. We had 2 hours to reach the Temple of Heaven, but we made a mistake and took a bus instead. It was the milk run, we spent over an hour on the bus and we were nowhere close to our destination. We'll visit the Temple tomorrow, our last day in Beijing.

Rafael & the Boys met some of his relatives in the city for dinner so May, Kim & I were left to fend for ourselves. We decided to visit Tian'an Men Square. Some may recall, this was the site were the student prodemocracy protests was crushed in 1989. Tian'an Men Square reminds me a lot like the Red Square in Moscow. It's the largest public square & is the size of 90 American Football Fields. Unfortunately, we could only see the square from a distance since it was closed off not permitting us any access tonight.

We got lost trying to find Liulichang area near Qian Men. We spent 1/2 hour trying to locate the area where we had supper after our visit ton the Forbidden City. Exhausted from a long day of transit commuting, we decided to return to Wangfujing Street to eat.

The Chinese Government is making a strong effort to reshape the current populations social behaviors. For example, there is a commercial teaching Chinese people to be more helpful, kinder, polite, courteous and cleaner. If this country wants to attract more tourism dollars, certain behaviors do need to change. Things that occurred when China was a closed society are not acceptable in a modern one. Unfortunately, I think it will take a full generation to eliminate these rude and poor behaviors. That's my short soap box speech.

No set agenda for tomorrow, but we are flying to Luoyang tomorrow evening since we were unable to secure a train ticket.