Dear Gina,

Great to hear from you.   We had a wonderful time in Beijing and Harry was a wonderful guide. We enjoyed working with him and he was so flexible and accommodating with our wishes and needs.  His English was excellent.  We learned some more Chinese from him and he learned some more English from us.  The weather was not as hot as expected and we had a few rain showers which kept the temperature comfortable.  We were so pleased to see the famous sites in Beijing.  The only place we did not get to see was the Ancient Observatory.  It was not open on Monday.  So the next time I go to Beijing, I will try to see the Observatory and some of the other less popular places I could not see this time.  We liked the hotel and the central location.  It allowed us to do some exploring on our own.  Thank you for setting up a great trip for us. 
 
The best shopping for us for inexpensive souvenirs for our friends at home was a place I read about called The Shard Box on Ritan Beilu and also for quirky T-shirts, Plastered T-Shirts on Nanluogu Xiang.  I think much of the merchandise in Liulichang Market was very over priced with too aggressive sales people.  We enjoyed the Jade and Pearl place, but they are over priced.  We can get the same quality in the US for about the same price or less.  Americans do not like aggressive sales people and actually are put off by their tactics and probably do not purchase as much as they might if the sales people will just leave them alone to look on their own.  I know this is something you cannot do anything about, but it is just for your information.
 
Thank you for all of your assistance. 

Mickey Dufilho