I'm happy to report that I just received a very warm email from the Aman at Summer Palace to confirm our dinner reservations in August and that they will also be able to offer us a site tour of all their facilities. I think most everything should be ready by the time we will be there in late August as they have set the resort opening to be September 1, while the restaurant(s) will open on August 1. One thing is that they cannot confirm which restaurant our table will be at yet, so it seems perhaps not all the restaurants will be open in August.

They also sent me two PDF files, one with photos and another with a fact sheet. From the photos, it seems to me that they exercised considerable restraint with the decor, in not being too "modern" or too "Aman-esque", for the lack of a better term, and keeping with the Ming theme of the Summer Palace. As a result, though looking very comfortable, it lacks a bit of that "wow" factor that you normally see with Aman interiors. The exteriors, however, are stunning. To be actually staying inside the Summer Palace to me is almost unreal; without lending too much to hyperbole, a bit like staying at the Palace of Versailles, perhaps.

In any case, this makes me even more excited for our trip to the Olympics. As we have planned the Aman visit for our last night, I'm sure it will make for a memorable last hurrah for our trip!