Tuesday - Huntong Section, Rickshaw, lunch, Belltower, Tea.

Our first stop was the Summer Palace, the Summer home for the emporerors. It consisted of a smaller version of the forbidden city but also had a man made lake. We took a ride in a dragon boat across the lake.

Outside the Summer Palace we visited a pearl factory where fresh water pearls were processed and displayed for sale. Mary bought a pearl bracelet that was strung for her by two young women.

We bused to the Hutong section of Beijing. This was once the slums of the city with thousands of back alleys. Much of it has been displaced by development, but the government has preserved a few square miles of it for historic and tourism reasons.

We boarded a rickshaw bicycle pedaled by an older but very capable guy.

We went to a local home, a quadrangle, where we were served lunch by the family.

It was one of the best meals yet. The family consisted of the women and her husband and some in-laws who shared a kitchen. The bedrooms were situated around the courtyard where most of life took place.

From the right, April, Larry, Kathleen, Marilyn, Mary and me.

A daughter in-law holds the family chick.

The family courtyard.

One more stop in the rickshaw to the bell-tower and then for a tea ceremony where we were instructed in the finer aspects of the aroma and taste of teas.

In the evening we gathered for a farewell dinner: chicken parm? Already I missed Chinese food. After dinner, Charley, Linda, Jessica, Larry and Katheleen and Mary and I walked a few blocks down to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone where we talked about the trip.

We walked back to the hotel and stood outside and talked for over an hour before reluctantly saying our goodbyes.

It was a good group to travel with and kudos to our guides and to the unflappable April our extremely capable tour director.

Wednesday – Homeward bound
We had late breakfast and later ran into April who told us that our flight from Beijing to Chicago was delayed at least a couple of hours because of weather in the midwest. Most of us wouldn't make our connecting flights.

We departed about two hours late after waiting outside the gate eating complimentary sandwiches and getting some last minute shopping done. The agent in Beijing told us that there were no flights available from Chicago to Boston and made arrangements for us to stay overnight in Chicago for a morning flight to Boston.

The flight was a smooth overnight trip - about twelve hours. It was light at take-off. Then the sun went down and came up again. Then it got dark again before we got to Chicago.

At O'Hare, we checked the board and realized that there were at least two flights delayed because of weather that would get us to Boston tonight. We scrambled and ran into some problems with overworked agents and security lines, but we just made a flight home. Our bags came later but it was good to be home.