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Tiananmen Square: Here Wila snaps a shot of young soldiers (in suits too big for them) assembling to march through the Square, with a monument in the background. I couldn't tell exactly what was on the monument, as ropes and guards prevent one from getting within 50 meters of it.

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Tiananmen Square, Wednesday late afternoon:
The vans took us here after the Summer Palace to meet up with the rest of our group. When it isn't filled with tanks and whatnot, it's a... big, open space, with big communist buildings surrounding it. For obvious Westerners like myself, it's a near constant exercise in warding off street vendors. Here's the Mao portrait on the north end; if you want a cheap book of his wisdom, there's no shortage of people selling that in the Square. Trust me.

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Summer Palace: Eventually we made our way back around to Longevity Hill to try to find "the 200 steps". I don't think we found them, but we definitely took more than that many to get to the top. I think that's the Temple of the Sea of Wisdom behind me.

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Summer Palace: On the other side of the island the 17-Arch Bridge connects it to the shore. (I'm hoping the untranslated Chinese names are more interesting. However, at least we don't have to guess how many arches there are.) [Yes, I took this with the B&W filter.]

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South Hu Dao (Lake Isle), an island on the... south side of the lake. (Efficient, these naming conventions of theirs.) Saul prays for good fortune (or for cute single Chinese women) on the rocks below the Dragon King's Temple.

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Summer Palace: Here's the... I think it's a Cloud Dispelling Hall. (Apparently it doesn't dispell haze, however.) The hill is called Longevity Hill; I can discern that much. The palace grounds run along the side of the rather large Kunming Hu (lake). David and Pete hiked all the way around the lake, while the rest of us took the our-powered ferry across the waters to...

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Summer Palace, Wednesday morning:
Our contact in Beijing, the very nice Mrs. Chen (no relation to our Dr. Chen) arranged for vans to take us outside of town to where the Emporer used to spend the balmy summer days. [Scaling the rocks, bottom to top: Saul, TK, Henry, David, Pete, Wila]