China Day 3

Summer Palace:  

Today we woke up to beautiful weather!  We looked out our apartment windows and could see the mountains beyond Beijing.  Jim said this is not common and he hadn't been able to see that far on any of his business trips to Beijing.  So, we're off to a good start!

We ate breakfast at the hotel again and grabbed a couple Subway sandwiches for the road.  We always carried H2O at all times, too. 

The Summer Palace is located 6 miles Northwest of Beijing.  I'll quote you from our guide book, Eyewitness Travel Guide to China, 

"The sprawling grounds of the Summer Palace served the Qing Dynasty as an imperial retreat from the stifling summer confines of the Forbidden City."   "It was not until the time of Emperor Qianlong (remember the guy from the tombs?) who reigned from 1736 to 1795, that the Summer Palace assumed its current layout.  The palace is mostly associated, however, with Cixi (remember her, too?) who had it rebuilt twice: once following its destruction by French and English troops in 1860, and again in 1902 after it was plundered during the Boxer rebellion."

The drive took us about one hour.  Yes, I said one hour.  Traffic very bad. (said our driver)  Plus we saw two accidents on the way.  I thought we might be driving out of the city a bit, but it didn't really seem like it.  The parking lot just seems to be in the middle of a Beijing-type suburb.  ???  Anyway, we paid our admittance fee and we were in!

I was immediately struck by the larger amounts of people as compared to our relatively quiet Qing tomb day yesterday.   We entered through the East Palace Gate, made our way through the courtyard area and found the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity.  This housed the throne on which Cixi sat.  You walk up to the Hall and are allowed to look inside.  It's interesting, but pressing up with the crowd was not.  I was beginning to get cranky, both with the crowds and with the fact that we didn't have a guide to the place and I felt that we didn't really know where we were going or what the heck we were really seeing.  We argued about that as we walked around until we found the Garden of Virtue and Harmony.   When you enter the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, everyone must be virtuous and be in harmony.

No.  Not really,  but here the crowds disappeared and we were able to sit down and figure things out.  We were also treated to a fabulous concert on Chinese instruments.  

The picture is a hall in the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, where we sat down and regrouped :

 " This three story building served as a theater, where the courts 348 member opera troupe entertained Cixi"  (and the Rooney family while on Holiday in 2008):

On our way out of the Garden of V&H (see above, I don't feel like typing it again!), we experienced our second, and what would be very common from here on out, papparazzi moment.  John was accosted by a group of Asian ladies and fawned over.  They even took a picture with him.  John was not thrilled with the whole thing.  The older boys were giggling, too.  I turned it around by saying that the people who do this only pick the most good looking child to accost.  It became a contest between the three of them after that.

Here's John getting accosted in the Garden of V&H:
You may wonder why the boys were continually stopped, fawned over, and photographed multiple times.  Well, many of the Asians touring these sites are from the countryside.  They have never seen a white person before.  They are fascinated with blond hair and blue eyes.  They also have never seen families with three children.  And three sons!??!  I was told over and over and over and over how great I was for having three sons.  People patted my back, shook our hands, gave us thumbs up.  It was unreal.  I'm a minor celebrity there now for having given birth to three sons.

On to the Summer Palace report!  We left the garden of V&H and walked  until we found Kunming lake. (not far!)  We stopped for a photo op, as it was so pretty.  Here we are: 
That picture was taken with Jim's camera which was on some f*ed up setting that day.  All of the photos that day seem over exposed.  Good thing I had my camera and Young Jim had his.

  Our next stop was the building behind us in that picture:  The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha on top of Longevity Hill.  First you have to walk and walk!  We walked along the famous "Long Corridor":

"The beams of this 2388 ft walkway are decorated with over 14,000 scenic paintings."  It was truly amazing, and what a glorious day!

When we got to the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha, we had to climb 5 billion steps to the top.  Okay, maybe it wasn't 5 billion.  It definitely looked and felt like 5 billion.  But the views were worth it.  Here's half of the billion steps:
Here is just a small part of the views:
Inside the Tower is a large Buddha statue with a zillion arms.  Okay, not a zillion, but let's say many.  You are allowed to look at it from the outside only.  I didn't upload that picture.  We looked at the Buddha with many arms and sat and rested and ate our Subway.  We were congratulated a few times about our 3 sons, too.

We climbed down all those steps and continued around to the area of the lake that has the Marble Boat:
The Marble Boat is a symbol of the downfall of China.  "Cixi paid for this extravagant folly with funds meant for the modernization of the Imperial Navy."  After that, it didn't take long for China to collapse.  The superstructure of the boat is actually wood painted to look like marble.  I was slightly surprised because I thought we'd be able to walk onto the boat itself.  You're not allowed.  So we rested and the boys had ice creams and enjoyed more of the day.

Following that, we took a boat ride (not a Marble one, drat!) back over toward the beginning of our trek.  We still had one area left to see and that included the Bronze Ox (Not impressive.  Very small.) and the Seventeen-arch Bridge.
"A marble lion crowns each of the 544 balusters along the bridge's length."  We walked over the bridge and explored the South Lake Island for a bit.  Then our time was gone!  

Our driver took us back to the Ascott for the remainder of the afternoon.  We hung out, ate a bleh dinner at the hotel, and headed out by taxi to the Beijing Chaoyang Theater for an acrobatics show.  It was very Cirque du Soleil-lite and included things we had seen at Disney's Epcot China pavilion....plate spinning, jumping through hoops, bike tricks.  Also more daring and freaky things.   It was very entertaining.  A must-see if you travel to China.

Impressions:  

1.  Loved the Summer Palace.  We had such great weather and saw so much.  We really enjoyed the people.  From the old guy drawing Chinese characters on the sidewalk in water with a giant paintbrush to the ladies accosting the boys (Mom, she pinched my cheek.) to the many, many folks we saw wandering around eating corn right off the cob.  Another snack they like to wander with is Yams!  They smell so good, but it has to be messy, right?

2.  We quickly got used to being stared at constantly.  I loved to see the faces staring at you and then figuring out mom, dad, one boy, two boys, three boys....then eyes lighting up in surprise, turning around to watch us, poking their friend to look too.   After a bit, we got used to it and didn't pay attention to it.

 

Up Next:  Tian'an Men Sqaure, Forbidden City, Houtong Tour