Asia: Beijing: The Zoo and Summer Palace

After going to Forbidden City and Tian Anmen Square, we went through the zoo quickly and took a boat from inside (right next to the kangaroos) down a long river to the Summer Palace.After going to Forbidden City and Tian Anmen Square, we went through the zoo quickly and took a boat from inside (right next to the kangaroos) down a long river to the Summer Palace.

Of course there were pandas galore...

So cute, and up close and personal!

A few notes on Beijing: First off, the air pollution was absolutely horrible and so sad; however, the city itself, minus the smog, was actually really clean and in good shape! This is, I'm sure, in preparation for the Olympics. One thing we heard about the pre-Olympic clean-up that saddened us, though, was that they were going through the city and getting rid of the poorly translated English signs...This wasn't relevant in a lot of areas because there wasn't any English, but wherever there was it sadly seemed to be perfect translation. UNTIL we got to the zoo...

At the Beijing zoo, you can get an automatic guide to listen to while you wander through the park. We were impressed that you got the every place with the guide.

We liked the warnings by the panda pits. Another favorite in addition to the one below was "For your safety, Please do not leap across the rail ! "

The zoo was really beautiful, but there was a lot of last minute construction all around...apparently in China you actually can get things built in two months.

I am only posting a few pictures of Summer Palace because, once again, it's smoggy/rainy and the pictures don't do it justice--but check out this website: http://www.chinasummerpalace.com/
You can scroll through and look at pictures there. There are a lot, especially near the bottom.

There were a lot of paddle boats for rent, but only one was being used because of the rainy weather! The haze made everything look even more mystical, though. It was really beautiful.