Off to the 9th or 12th Ring

Today or yesterday, depending on when I finish writing this blog, I went to the Summer Palace which is way the hell out there in Beijing, some where around like the 9th or 12th ring of Beijing. The area is shrouded in dust and the remains of giants. It looks much like what you think Beijing looked like in the old days, like in 1990. I am not talking about the Summer Palace but the area around it like the little streets adjacent to it. But besides the copious amounts of dust, that makes it seem you are in a wild wild west movie, it is a cool area. It makes you feel like you are really in China, obviously the CBD is China but doesn't feel like the China experience. Out here in the 9th ward (really like the 5th or 6th ring) it feels more like small town China, with its open area fruit and vegetable market and other misc thing market and small shops.

The Summer Palace was totally BOOK. It didn't really go inside the actually buildings of the Summer Palace but spent most the time hanging out on a pedal boat. It reminded of me being on Lake Washington in the summer time. Parts of the Summer Palace even look a little bit like Seward part except with a lot more Chinese people everywhere. There where not that many white people yet (this will probably bring even more people searching that to our blog, which brings me to another point, as more and more people use the internet or the information gatherer as I like to call it, more and more people are searching very unusual stuff to gain access to our site. I have mentioned this before, but the newest and strangest thing they are searching is "was just visiting you didn't have to do him like that," it is by far the most searched thing to get access to our site. I am not sure why someone is searching this, but if you are the one, I am sorry to inform you, we are probably not the site you are looking for), because its not quite tourist season. Anyway, hanging out on the lake at the Summer Palace is a great way to spend a sunny afternoon and the dust that blows relentlessly in that area doesn't really attack you on the lake, so its a great hang out on sunny day.

Blogs latest post reminded me of how long it takes me to put two and two together. I forgot that my Aiyi is from Sichuan and that her family might be in harms way. So, I sent her a text message, to see how her family is doing. All of them are doing okay, but she says that her house is about to cave in. So if you want to send me money to give her to help her with her problem, I will use it to pay her salary the rest of time I am here, so you can help me and her at the same time.

Highlight of the Day: The banana chocolate chip pancakes I made and hanging out on the lake.