August 11 Lake District

A day off to relax at the pool, sleep in and enjoy the pool. In the evening we went for a stroll in the lake district where Emperors once resided to fight the heat of Beijing. This area is now a series of hutongs beautifully preserved/restored in time for the 2008 Olympics (the VISA lanterns figure very prominently). We enjoyed meeting the many tourists.As it is only 30 minutes by car from the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest, we thought we’d hop in a cab to visit. However, no cab would take us! As we have found here, cabs have freedom to take rides or not and in the dozens of attempts it’s a miracle we can get around.