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"Bu yauo" was some of the early Chinese I learned, meaning "Don't need." And when said with a friendly smile, most vendors were respectful. But the need to constantly defending yourself is just another of the irritating aspects of this society. On the other hand, these pesky, persistent vendors may well have something useful, like postcards. I realized after I had fended off one woman in Shanghai, that I did actually want to buy some postcards, but the sheer aggressive nature of her sales style automatically put me in an defensive and declining mode. Something to watch out for: that their attitude does not blind you from what you want to accomplish.

Of the 16 Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, 13 of them have tombs clustered together in an area called The Ming Tombs. Our tour bus made a stop at one particular tomb known as Ding Ling. The tomb chambers are open to allow people to walk through the tomb chambers and around the gardens and grounds built to honor the emperor buried here.

It was dark when we got back to Tinanmen Square and we were ready for dinner. Everett and I had not yet found a place to stay but Dave said he had found a nice place for 35 quai a night (US$3). We stashed our stuff and were now on the hunt for dinner. As it was Dave and Everett's last night in town, we found a nice small place serving the town's namesake dish, Peking Duck.

The next day Ev and I didn't really know what we were doing until we ran into Maria, a young lady from Melbourne, Australia who was ethnically Chinese and had spent some of her childhood in Hong Kong. She was heading to the Summer Palace on her own and in no subtle way, with her clever Austrlaian humor, suggested we join her. On the bus, we met Thecla from Ireland and Nadine from Germany. They were heading to the University of Beijing where Nadine needed to check out courses to study there next year.

The Summer Palace is a long way out of town by public bus, so it turned out to be an all day event. Well worth the trek out that way, it's a simple series of buildings and shrines built along the northeast shore of Kunming Hu (Lake). It was nice to stroll along the lake as we appreciated the peaceful and pleasant environment. We could easily understand why the emperor and his crew had this place made. Afterwards, we found a bus that went right back to Tinanmen Square instead of the circuitous route we took via the University to get there.

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