Beijing Day 2 (Summer Palace)

Woke up early again the next morning and went over to the Summer Palace now that Ms. Obama wasn't there and crowds were less.  The summer palace is a huge complex about 9 miles outside the city (northwest) just past Peking University.  There is a huge lake in the middle which I walked around, as I arrived around 7am with 2 hours before the buildings opened up to visit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

This is near the beginning of the east entrance, a short walk from the subway:

 And another:

 Some cool rocks:

 China has some really nice Cherry Blossom trees:

 More greenery in the courtyard

 At lake, which I walked around (seemed like I walked 3-4 miles this day around the complex):

 Another one from different angle:

Nice reflection.  Around 7:30am I think: 

 Looked like a large fortress.  Also, there's part of the longest corridor in the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Corridor

 Lots of people pretty early in the morning.  The people were good about getting exercise and walking around:

 Continuing to walk:

 Reflection and architecture is pretty cool

Looking down from atop a bridge: 

 Through a neat window:

 More:

 Walkway

 Bridge 1:

 Bridge 2:

 Bridge 3:

More reflections: 

 Nice nature, west side of the lake:

 Walking along west side of lake, looking away from the lake onto a pond:

 Trees:

 More cherry trees:

 Blooming:

 Looking back at the main structure:

 Cool bridge:

 Another cool bridge:

By 9am or so the lake was bustling  with boats carring tourists from one side to the other:

 Very intricate:

 Looking out from main building:

 Backside of the complex (north side)

 north side again:

 River village, lots of shops down here:

 Walking around the river village:

 More:

 More:

 Walking back now to east entrance:

 Theater:

 Back at the Airbnb place, taking pics of some of the covered motorcycles or whatever these are here:

Packed up my stuff and headed back with a screen shot of the map towards the Ron Yard hotel.  Unfortunately, Google was off by about a half mile and no one knew where Ron Yard was when I went there.  I lose cell phone power, and find a nice man who thinks he knows where I'm going.  Brings me to a hostel where one person knows a little English.  She is very nice and we eventually find the hotel and she escorts me there through the back alleys of the hutongs (Chinese neighborhoods).  Met up with the group who arrived from Chicago and then went to dinner.  Ate some good noodles and also some donkey meat sandwiches, pretty delicious.