April 5, 2019 our last day in Beijing - Visit to Summer Palace and Olympic park and then back to the Celebrity Millennium

Today was our last day in Beijing. It was a short one as we only have about half a day touring and then we leave for the ship.

Breakfast was early today- 6:30-7:30 AM and we had to be at the bus at 7:30 with our carryons.

Our first visit was to  the Summer Palace. Per Charlie it is a vast property comprised of 717 acres of land.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/summer.htm

We entered the park and started walking past different pavilions and palaces.  We then walked past Kunming lake to go to the Long Corridor. 

Lake Kunming

We passed the Marble Boat  which was actually a wood and stone structure that was used for parties and receptions.

After the Marble Boat we entered the Long Corridor. 

Path to the Long Corridor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Corridor.

It was built to allow the Emperor's Mother to walk through the gardens during the winter and avoid the snow.
The ceilings and

Olympic Mascots

connection points are painted with different scenes and scenes of the seasons.

The long corridor is 728 meters which is 2,388 feet - about 1/2 mile.
It was a good walk to get to the end.
We spent about 90 minutes at the garden.

Our last stop is the Olympic Park which was close by.

Charlie warned us that the wind and dust storms may come upon us and urged us to bring masks if we had any and to take photos and sight see quickly.

The park was vast and had the olympic stadium, convention center and the water cube.



There were trailers inside the park that sold food and souvenirs.

The park complex covers 680 acres.

As predicted the winds and dust came up and we got on the bus to go to lunch.

We had our last lunch with our fellow travelers and and hour later we boarded the bus at 1pm for the drive back to the ship.

Charlie announced we would have one rest stop along the way. 
The rest stop consisted of some gas pumps and bathrooms and a combo store and restaurant.

At 4 pm we arrived at the pier to join our ship. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to Charlie as he was very knowledgeable, friendly and entertaining.

However it felt good to be back on board where we could rest the next day which was a sea day.