Breakfast was amazing at the Sheraton Dongcheng Hotel! I have never been at a hotel that had such variety! We could get American, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and European food. we sampled many different foods.
At 9:00 we met our guide in the lobby, boarded the tour bus, and started on our way for a very full day of touring. We passed the Bird’s Nest and other buildings in the Olympic Facilities.
We first drove to the Summer Palace and walked through the beautiful grounds. Michael told us about the Dragon Lady. She was originally a concubine, then she worked her way up to eventually became the strongest person there who controlled emperors. When we get home, I will watch The Last Emperoror again. After a lovely walk, we rode in a dragon boat. 
We then went to the Pearl Factory which is mainly a huge showroom. A woman told us about the various colors and quality of pearls. Then we shopped. None of us was inspired to buy anything.
Michael took us to a small local restaurant for lunch that had excellent food! We had four kinds of steamed dumplings, thin potato noodles, cabbage and peanut salad, some steamed vegetables, rice, a non-spicy General Pau’s Chicken, and more.
Lunch Restaurant
After lunch we rode rickshaws through an older area of the city. It had narrow streets, community bathrooms for the residences since apartments were too small to include them, and broken down bicycles holding parking places.
We then walked on the beautiful grounds of the Temple of Heaven. After that we ate dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant. Even though the presentation was impressive, we all agreed that lunch was much better.
Temple of Heaven
12497 steps/5.32 miles walked