Summer Palace and other relaxing things

We wanted an easy day after our big day at the Great Wall, so we decided to head to the Summer Palace.  This is where royalty used to go to escape the summer heat of Beijing.  Luckily for us it is now connected to city center by subway.  It really is a lovely place to walk around.

At one point a school group (most likely from outside the city) walked by us and started to take our pictures.  We waved and they all started yelling "Hello" and "Hi."  It is really fun to see how excited kids get just because we are foreigners.

Took the ferry across the man-dug lake for $1

Afterwards we headed to Steph and Brian's place, a couple who graciously hosted us through couch surfing.  If you don't know what couch surfing is, it's an online community of people offering their couches or floors to other people in search of a cheap (free) place to stay.  Because Beijing was more expensive for lodging than we realized, we wanted to try and couch surf at least one night to save money.  And Steph and Brian were excellent first time hosts.  They walked us to a dinner place, helped us order and then headed out to their own pre-planned dinner.  It was so wonderful to feel like there were friends in this foreign city to help us get around if needed.

The next day was just a hanging out day.  We hung out at Steph and Brian's until noon, then headed to our new hostel where we had lunch and unpacked.  During long term travel, we sometimes need a break from being a tourist and time to refuel, and that was what we planned on doing.  We met a couple of Americans at the new hostel and ended up going out to dinner with them to a Tibetan place close to the hostel.