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After a very long series of flights, we finally reached Beijing sleepy and worn out. The next morning we awoke and started our tour of China's capital. Out hotel was situated very near Beijing University, where we sometimes had lectures in the morning. Arriving at our hotel at night it was hard to see our surroundings, but the next morning revealed much of Beijing, since we had a 4th floor perspective. The view from the balcony consisted mostly of short one story buildings with weathered, Chinese style tiled roofs against a backdrop of faraway mountains. That morning we walked to Beijing University, casually referred to as 'Bei Da,' and had our first lecture introducing us to Chinese history. After having lunch at the campus' cafeteria, we walked to YuanMingYuan Park. The park is also known as the "Original Summer Palace" or the "Old Summer Palace." It was once a place of Chinese style natural beauty infused with European influence with Western Baroque buildings and such, but was completely demolished in 1860 by European colonial powers. We visited the ruins of such buildings, as well as a newly recreated stone maze, along with several picturesque ponds and lakes accented with recreated traditional bridges.

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