I think I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again, but it was SO HOT in Beijing. Mentally, I was not prepared for it. On the map, I saw how far north Beijing is and just assumed that it had to be cooler than Thailand. Nope. So I’ll admit, it made for a very grumpy Shelley while we were out and about sightseeing. As a result, I don’t have very many pictures from our visits to the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, and I also didn’t retain very much information about the history of each. Ming and Qing dynasties, Buddhism and Confucianism, rock gardens and painted screens—that’s about as much that stuck. Here are some highlights from the pictures that I do have. You’ll notice that it’s pretty much impossible to take a picture at either place that doesn’t have other people in it. There are a lot of people in China!
