the Summer Palace

The last excursion of the trip was the Summer Palace. The grounds were once a summer resort for the Empress Cixi, who commandeered 30 million taels (this unit is equal to about 40 g) of silver for its construction. This sum was intended to be used by the Chinese navy--many attribute their subsequent defeat to this misappropriation of funds.

Three-quarters of the palace grounds is comprised of man made Kunming Lake; the earth that was excavated for the lake was used to build Longevity Hill, which dominates the landscape of the Summer Palace.

Like many of the gardens and resorts in Beijing, the Summer Palace serves as a recreational park. When we approached a pavilion overlooking the lake, we noticed a large crowd had gathered. Inside the pavilion was a older couple doing a traditional Chinese song and dance. The music provided by accompanying musicians was upbeat and the dancing was charming. And the elderly gentleman (pictured left) had a mustache that was truly out-of-this-world.

We walked around the entire perimeter of the grounds, and opted to take a "pleasure boat" back across to where we would be picked up. The grounds were beautiful, but the day we visited it was humid and overcast, so it wasn't the most ideal day to visit such a scenic spot.

In summary: lots of walking around, crowded, hot, and humid. Just a typical day of summer sight-seeing in Beijing.