Our fifth day in Beijing was probably the most hectic, having visited four locations where the Summer Palace was first on our agenda. It was a bit of a shame that we visited it during the fall. The haze proved to be too thick for us to enjoy most of the view; albeit I still enjoyed staying by the bridge just because I thought it looked relatively elegant. Again, I seemed to have found the simplest of structures the most quaint.

We briefly visited one of Beijing`s silk factories, then proceeded to a tea house. I must admit I`m more of a coffee person, though I was genuinely amused by the whole ceremony involved in serving and drinking the tea, and the vast array of tea flavors. By the end of our tea ceremony, I figured the fruit tea was my favorite.

Before heading back to the hotel, we went to see the Bird`s Nest and the Water Cube, from afar of course. We tried to take jumping shots, except we never succeeded with a decent one. Still, all that jumping brought up our energy levels until it was time to conclude a good night.