Day 73: March 17, 2013 Smog Enshrouded Summer Palace

     We got up pretty early so that we could all eat breakfast and check out of the hostel and then got on the subway to Summer Palace. It took over an hour since it is pretty far away so once we got there we were all pretty excited. We bought tickets and then headed inside, which was filled with all sorts of cool structures. The architecture was really cool and it was really cute inside with older people dancing all around and a guy doing gymnastics. We made our way up the big hill and ended up right next to the Temple of Buddhist Incense. From there we should have had an awesome view of the whole park but unfortunately it wasn’t exactly the best weather as far as fog and smog go. From where we were we couldn’t even see the giant lake at the bottom that would have been beautiful on a better day.

Summer Palace

Workin' out!

Tower of Buddhist Incense

      We still decided to make our way down by the lake and see The Long Corridor, which was pretty cool. Along the whole thing there were pretty scenes painted along with some cool designs. Bryan, Jess, John, and I split off from the others since they didn’t seem too interested and got a better view of the temple and got a picture in front.

     After that we decided to walk along the water and make our way towards the Seventeen-arch Bridge. We decided not to go all the way there but made it to this part that stuck out over the water and had a great view of Longevity Hill. After that we decided it was probably about time to find the other four and continue on with the days activities. 

Longevity Hill

      We got on the subway for a quite a while and eventually ended up at the Temple of Heaven. Everyone was pretty hungry so we decided to grab some lunch before going to the temple. Everyone was pretty indecisive and on different pages with what they wanted so we ended up splitting up again and Bryan, Ron, John, Jess, and I found a family style restaurant and the others found a dumpling place. The five of us got a ton of food and all of it turned out to be amazing. Ron and I got eggplant, duck buns, and Beijing-style beef to split. Jess got this cashew chicken that was really good and John had this sweet and sour pork that was basically in syrup it was so sweet. All of it was delicious other than I wasn’t a hug fan of the “Beijing-style beef” that was actually pork. We pulled out the menu to tell them they brought out the wrong thing but turns out there was just a translation error on the menu and the English said it was beef but the Chinese said pork. Besides that we were very happy with our meal and begging each other to help finish it all until we couldn’t wait around any longer if we wanted to get to the temple.

     We rushed over to the temple to meet the other group and realized we were kind of crunched on time. We booked it through the park until we were at the entrance of the Temple of Heaven, which unfortunately cost more to get in. Jess and Ron decided they didn’t want to pay to go in but John, Bryan, and I couldn’t pass it up. After going in we decided it was well worth it although we did have to rush through it. We made sure to get a few good pictures and check out the impressive interior designs and then it was already time to find everyone else and make it to the train station. We met everyone outside the entrance to the park and then did our best to catch a couple cabs, which wasn’t all that easy.

Temple of Heaven

 

      After we finally snagged some, we showed them our tickets and they got us right to the train station. We had a second to grab some drinks and snacks and I finally got the Snickers I had been craving all weekend. Bryan got some McDonald’s and John tagged along to get some coffee. John then proceeded to tell us this awful story of his dad’s friend who spilt a scorching hot 60-ounce coffee all over his lap while merging onto the highway and that it was so bad he had to call 911. Within minutes John spilled his coffee all over the floor and was pretty disappointed but glad that it wasn’t all over himself. Without enough time to get another, we all headed to board the train. We realized none of us actually had our own tickets, which had our passport numbers on them, so we had to do some shuffling around but eventually we all got the right ones. In no time we were all in our seats and had 5 hours to kill. I started out with a nice nap and then read a little bit of my book. Everyone else seemed to work on thermo, but I was already ahead of everyone so I decided to just take it easy and finish the last problem when we got home. 

     After sitting for a few hours I was ready to get up and walk around but unfortunately I was against the window and the guy next to me had his giant suitcase in front of him and was sleeping on it and the girl next to him was sleeping on her tray table. Without much other option, I stayed in my seat and tried to take my mind off of how much I had to pee. Luckily, they both got off in Nanjing not too much later so I could get up. I stayed up talking with Bryan, Ron, and Jess for a while and then made it back to my seat and just listened to music and contemplated life a little bit. 

     Before I knew it, we were already back in Shanghai and were even 15 minutes early. We all got off the train and headed to find a cab and waited in a giant line that surprisingly only took us 20 minutes to get to the front of. We got in and after a painfully long ride in the rain, we were finally back at our dorm. I got back in my room, fiddled around in the dark for my thermo stuff and headed downstairs to finish the homework. After not too long I was done and couldn’t have been happier to get in bed.