So Saturday we decided to go to the Summer Palace which turned out to be a great decision. Those pictures will be in a separate post.

This is some heavy duty drilling that was occurring on our way to the coffee shop to grab some breakfast before wandering around the Palace.

After the Summer Palace we went out to dinner with William and Michael. Michael took us to a restaurant that is located in the old castle of a brother of one of the Qing emperors. The menu is based on what the people in the palaces ate but not what the emperor ate. It seems like a small distinction to make but an important one I guess. After some investigation there is only one restaurant that serves the food the emperor ate (Royal) and a couple that serve palace food (Imperial).

The restaurant was good and huge. It will be a fun place to go back to when it is warmer out so that you can sit outside and take advantage of the beautiful surroundings. The menu was pretty interesting. They had things as diverse as flower salad (which we are and was good) and deer afterbirth and embryo (which cost $450 US that we did not eat).

One of the funniest things though was how all the wait staff had wireless iPaks and headsets for ordering food. It would be the only place to run a restaurant like that though. It was massive comprised of at least 20 different buildings. It also has received the honor of being one of the ten best tax payers of Haidian district. For the observant among you, you will have noticed that this is the first place I have gone out in the district I live in (Haidian) that is not right near my house. Props to you.

After that we went to Bodhi for a foot massage with everyone which was fun. It is always more fun with the more people you go with.