Day 3 November 15, 2006
Got up at 5:45 AM and got ready for the day. We went to the Summer Palace for the emperors of China where the palace is next to a large man made lake. The dirt they dug out for the lake made a large hill of dirt where they built some of the palace buildings and planted lots of trees.
After we got to see some of the palace we went to the fresh water pearl farm and learned where the oysters where grown, at the man made lake where the summer palace is at, and how they get the pearls. The oysters that grow the pearls have as many as 30 pearls in them, which was a surprise. I had thought if they had more than 1 they would have maybe 5. Many of the pearls are of poor quality and are used in creams and the better ones are then used in jewelry.
We then went to some local Chinese families for a real homemade Chinese meal. We got to go to there home in a real Chinese rickshaw; the ride was great but the peddlers where more than some can handle. They followed us to the family’s house. The family was very nice and the food was wonderful. The man of the family was given a medal by the city of Beijing for being a great worker. The wife was very happy to show us her washer, shower and new flushing toilet, which some of us got to use. We got ready to leave and the peddlers where outside waiting for us to show up and try to get us buy their wares. They followed us back to where we where to get back on the bus, very persistent they where.
We then went to the Temple of Heaven where the emperor prayed each spring for a good harvest and then in the fall gave thanks for the good harvest. We came back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. After dinner we will be coming back and packing for our plane flight to Shanghi early in the morning. Looks like Thursday is going to be an exciting day.
We went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Our server was a good-looking young man that was real nice to us. When we got back to the hotel we packed our bags so that they would be ready for the bellmen to pickup later that night. John and I then went down to see if we owed anything on our room then we checked out the pool, spa and other amenities.
We checked out the massage and where notified we could get a sex massage with a young girl, of course I told they young man that we would not be interested in that, for we are interested in young men. He seemed to know what we where saying and I think if we wanted to we could have had a massage from some good looking young men. Missed out but maybe we will get lucky in I Suzhou.
We went back to our room to get ready for bed and get some rest for the plane flight in the morning.