That is not the Summer Palace. It's a big temple on the other side of the lake. But it looked interesting so I photographed it.

Now, at last, we see part of the Summer Palace. It's not a palace, you see, but more like a park with buildings. The Summer Palace is actually a large outdoor space with gardens, walkways, and a manmade lake. They dug the lake, which is

Looking the other direction you can see the size of this lake. The lady in light blue is a member of my tour group.

This manmade island juts into the lake and is reachable by a walkway. Great place for a small acoustic concert!

At the Summer Palace there is a long, mostly straight-line covered walkway, said (by Guiness) to be the world's longest. Each segment of the walkway has paintings like these above (most segments are straight rectangles; shown here is a round junction).

You've probably never seen a marble boat before. No, it won't float. It was built as a luxury retreat for an Empress with time on her hands.

Here is another shot of the marble boat. This "honeydew" project is one reason that her name is still a metaphor for unmarried old maid in China -- she had a husband, but men all over China look to this Empress as a prime example of what NOT to seek in a wife!

Beginning at the beginning, this is a photo of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft that would be carrying me to Beijing. The photo doesn't do it justice -- this thing is enormous. The 747-400 has a larger second storey (yes, it is a two-storey

Here's another shot of the Air China 747 jet. The people in the foreground should give you some sense of scale.

Yours truly, aboard the 747. Coach seats on this aircraft are slightly larger, but not much, than standard U.S. airline coach seats. Business class seats are about the same as business class on other airlines. I was booked for business