Great wall and summer palace

We finally got our first two official matches of 20 games finished. Against the two-time defending champion, we won 15 of the 20 games, and against another program, we won 17 of 20. So we are doing very well so far. We are hoping to get in at least 20 more games against each of the other teams, so we hope those go as well for us.

Today we had a scheduled excursion with the rest of the people at the conference. We got to go see a jade factory, the great wall, and the summer palace of the dragon lady. Pretty interesting stuff, although it was a long day, and since this week is the big national holiday, there were tons of people everywhere we went, most of them chinese. Also, it was different for me being with a tour group. We had time to ourselves at the wall, but at the summer palace we had to kind of rush through. Not as much fun as touristing on your own, but I wouldn't have made it to these places without the excursion. But, you probably just want to see the pictures, so here goes. A side note, if it looks smoky and smoggy on the far-away shots, it is because it is. The first morning, I thought it looked cool, like mist over the lake, but now that I have been here almost a week and have yet to see the sky or sun, I am a little tired of it. You can't really see that far ever. And it gets old. Anyways, the pictures:

A few cool sculptures from the jade factory

The great wall, where I climbed up.
Looking down from where I got to
Proof I was there, in case you didn't believe me!

A chinese train across the valley, through the smog (for alec)A cool lion at the summer palace

One of the buildings at the summer palace.

By the time we left the summer palace it was dark and late. One of our party got separated from us, and I don't know what happened to him. We left without him, so hopefully he can find his way back to the hotel. Now I am quite tired after many stairs on the wall, and fighting the crowds at the summer palace. Goodnight.