Beijing's Summer Palace

Thursday 31 May

We're in Beijing, and the Summer Palace is one of the recommended places to visit, along with The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and, of course, Tianenmen Square.  We are only in this throbbing, people-packed city for 5 days, so it's a whistlestop tour trying to see the major attractions, and taking time to rest and relax in between.  One of the things we enjoy doing most is chatting around the hostel table to fellow tourists, mostly young people - last night we talked to a young woman from France, a young couple from New Zealand, and a young man from Ireland.  The subjects of conversation ranged from the number of people we'd all heard of who'd had their Tibet tour cancelled (including ourselves, of course), Mongolian visas (and how Americans don't need one), having dresses and suits made in Vietnam, how to still get Facebook and blogspots while in China, and the pros and cons of buying an I-phone in China. 

We take the metro (underground) to get to the Summer Palace from our hostel.  We are pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to do this; directions and signs are in English as well as Chinese, and maps indicate clearly which line to take for the station you want.  The trains are modern, clean and quiet compared to the London Underground.  Not only does an automated voice tell you, in Chinese and  English, which station you are approaching, each station not yet reached is lit by a red light on a tube map on the train.  As the train leaves a particular station, the light goes out - so you just have to glance at the map opposite you in the train to know where you are.

Everywhere you step in Beijing, there's people, people, people; and the Summer Palace is no exception.  A notice says there were 31,000 visitors yesterday, and 26,000 are  expected today - and we are 2 of them.

There was a temple on the site of the Summer Palace as far back as the 15th century; however, the gardens were developed, and more buildings added, during the Qing Dynasty, in the 18th century.  In 1860, the Anglo- French Allied Forces burned down the whole lot, buildings and gardens.  As we walk around the Summer Palace, we are constantly reminded that each beautifully. "exquisitely" (Chinese description, not mine)  designed buillding is a replacement for the original, which the signs tell us were "brutally burned down by the Anglo-English Allied Forces".  In 1885, the buildings and gardens were restored, only to be razed to the ground again by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900.  After the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949. the Summer Palace was gradually restored to its former glory, as is the case with many other formerly dilapidated sites.  The Summer Palace is now recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

Reg and I spend an enjoyable few hours walking around the site;  there are various temples to see, each containing buddas and other icons.  We go for a boat ride on the beautiful lake, which is man-made, having been dug out in the 18th century by 100,000 men.  

On leaving the boat we stop for refreshments before walking through tree-lined pathways back to the entrance gate.  We come across a museum housing a small exhibition of Qing Dynasty wooden furniture, much of it very beautiful and ornately carved.

There's probably a lot more we could have seen,  but we're all "temple'd and pagoda'd out" and decide to make our way back to our hostel, hoping to miss the worst of the rush-hour crush.

After a rest, we venture out for food, and find a cafe-type restaurant with lots of Chinese people eating in it, which is usually a good sign.  The menus are in English as well as Chinese, and there are photos of the dishes on offer.  Reg has a beef dish and I have sweet and sour pork, which is delicious.

Afterwards we stroll down a busy side street, where neon lights are glowing, and a hotchpotch of stalls,   shops, cafes, restaurants and street-food vendors vie  for our attention,  Goods on offer vary from cameras and mobile phones, hats, sunglasses and bags, to knick-knacks, jewellery and fruit and veg.

We buy a new rucksack for Reg, as his old one is broken, then return to the hostel for Reg to send a scanned-in form to the train-travel agency that supplies our tickets.  Paypal have at last recognised the fact that we are in China, and have unblocked Reg's account.

Tomorrow we are up at 5 am as we are going on a tour to the Great Wall.