The "Summer Palace," Beijing

Another great full-group photo. From left to right: Steve, Catherine, Edmund, Janelle, Melanie, and Charlie. Here we are on a picturesque bridge by the East Palace complex of the Summer Palace, a sprawling 716 acre imperial retreat of the Qing Dynasty. The residence and park was built up and made famous by the Empress Dowager Cixi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.