Yiheyuan

Off to the summer palace (yiheyuan) and the old summer palace (yuanmingyuan)! The old one was looted and blown up in 1860 by dumb British and French soldiers who were mad at the Chinese for not allowing themselves to be horribly exploited by foreigners with bigger guns. Sigh. I've never spent much time at the summer palace (about 30 minutes once during a rushed tour) and I've never seen the ruins of the old one. From there the weather will dictate what happens next. It's pretty hot--it will be about 95 today plus the usually humidity and mugginess so I might retreat indoors somewhere for awhile.