Sunday 28th October 2018

We had another early start this morning. After breakfast we visited The Summer Palace, which was basically a place for the emperor to go and chill out - his gardens.  Now when I say gardens I mean a huge county park (probably bigger than Hyde Park) Peter told us that they started constructing this in 1750 and it wasn’t fully finished until 1850. It’s buildings included living quarters, Pagoda’s and a temple. The lake is man made and in warmer weather you can take the boats out.  

We then headed to the Pearl Factory, the lady spoke about where they come from, different types of pearls and how to tell if they are real or fake.

It was then time for the Silk Alley. Peter talked us through how to barter for the goods we wanted. We had around 1.5 hours in here, spent quite a lot of Yuan and had so much fun. The prices they start at were laughable but what we are paid for some of the items was more funny!

We then headed for our last meal together. We reflected on our last 10 days - it’s been an experience of a lifetime that we don’t want to end!

We had so much fun at Silk Alley that we decided to go back - we were only a 10 minute walk. To say that we went our ends is an understatement! Our bartering skills certainly improved as our spending went on. So much fun...

We had a couple of hours to grab some food and get packed. We weighed our bags as we were concerned that they would be too heavy after all the purchase but we managed.

Another great day had by all.

Very early start to head home tomorrow...















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