The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace:

As a final outing during his stay, Kwong wanted to visit the Summer Palace. We were both game, since we had yet to visit this acclaimed beauty of Beijing. When we woke, the day was just as amazing as the previous had been. The sky was pure blue. All we saw during the entire day out was a single fluff of cloud. We gathered and then headed to road to catch a taxi to the Summer Palace.

When we arrived, the place was alive with people. Kwong went to purchase tickets and we watched the people swarm about in groups, the hum was loud, even over the wind that rustled the trees with vengeance.

We pushed our way through the throng that just wanted photos in the court-yard-like entry area and out toward the lake that surrounds the Summer Palace. Once on the walk-way that skirts the lake, the wind was a force to be reckoned with. The wind threw water over the high embankments onto passers by with little effort. The howling and shuttering of the trees was deafening. We pushed our way against the wind to view the lake. As we left the entry-way, the mass of people thinned to almost no-one. We first crossed the bridge with 17 arches to the building where the Emperor and Empress would join on a small island. We then returned to the lovely path around the lake, with the wind still muscling us around.

There were some small foot-bridges made of marble, just like the bridge with 17 arches, but they were only small arches themselves, to cross small canals. The bridges were odd in that the grade of the steps changed as they went up. The initial grade was rather low, being very easy to climb, but quickly increased to a rather large step that was very steep. The appearance of the bridges was beautiful, because the grade change created a lovely high arch, but to climb them took a bit of concentration to not stumble over your feet.

Most of the trees surrounding the lake were very old and huge. Many of them had been patched to prevent further deterioration. The branches of some of the really old ones were propped up with metal bars, a procedure that appears to be common in places where they preserve the trees. We have seen this in the Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, and now in the Summer Palace. The trees serve a very important purpose here, so the preservation of them is completely understandable.

The wind finally started to relax once we rounded the southern end of the lake. Some ducks puttered around in the water, initially appearing to be decoys, we realized our mistake when one of them bobbed his head about a little. The cold and wind didn't seem to bother them too much.

We made our way over to the Marble boat and snapped a few photos from afar. I am not certain if it is ever open to the public, but this day it was not. It has beautiful stained glass windows and loads of detailed marble sculpting all over.

We had lunch and then headed to the highest point in the Summer Palace. Despite our musings at where the entire clump of people had been our travel around the lake, we weren't surprised to see them again at temple. The trip up the hill to the top was not only tiring, but so very fascinating. There were a maze of paths, some of which were cave-like, others beautifully paved with stones in flower patterns. The twisting and turning was well worth it. The amazing view from the top of the hill was breathtaking on such a clear and sunny day.

On our way down the hill, back to the entrance, we had to work our way through the crowds again, squeezing here and going around there. It was quite a work out, but eventually we made it out again.

We now had to find a taxi to take us to WangFuxing where Kwong promised we would find an excellent restaurant to have some dinner after paying our respects to the Well of the Wang family. (WANGFUXING = The well of the Wang family in Chinese. Kwong explained that the Wang family was a wealthy family ages ago, and the street was named for the well that is now just a beautifully decorated culvert cover with dragons adoring it's edges and an inscription about the Wang family in Chinese).

We got in a taxi, and had a bit of a ride. The taxi was unmarked, and so after a bit we decided that he wasn't going to take us to the correct spot and jumped ship. We found another taxi (marked this time) and were only a short distance from our destination. It cost us a little but we made it to the street.

On the street we saw a huge and beautiful Catholic church. We then headed the other way and found the restaurant. It was about 5pm so we all decided that it was perfect timing for dinner. The restaurant was not so crowded at this hour. We relaxed and had a nice dinner, then headed back home.