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Little Suzhou
Summer Palace's "Little Suzhou" were the Emperor (or emperor's son) could pretend to be a normal citizen and have servants act as performers, shop owners, and street vendors who he'd have to haggle withSummer Palace is quoted as "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." As the largest and seemingly best-preserved imperial garden in China, I would have to agree. Construction of the Summer Palace was initiated in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong as a gift for his mother's birthday. It has been rebuilt (and slightly restructured) twice due to invasions and renovated in 1888 by Empress Dowager Cixi.
Six of us visited the palace together and we split up into two groups, cause it's harder to handle the interests of larger groups and you get more glances by Chinese tourists or locals. As you enter the South Gate and cross the bridge, take note not to miss the quaintly beautiful and very colorful "Little Suzhou" where the Emperor/Empress (or Emperor's son) would pretend to be a "normal" citizen by making his servants act as shop owners and performers and haggle for various items. The wide structure and large stairways of the front of the Summer Palace had an open-castle feel to them. Entertaining
Rock Gardens line the path up the stairs and can certainly be termed a source of recreation, though you're not "supposed" to climb them or try jumping ledge to ledge, but it's just too much fun. Matt snapped a quick picture for me. At the top is the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, an odd yellow-green colored building with a very large statue of one of the Buddhist deities (tranquility or something) inside, worth checking out.
To the right (East) of the temple are some more rock gardens - one with a very tall ledge that provides a great overview of Kunming Lake if you can find the right position looking beside the Tower of Buddhist Incense. The path winds down all the way until you reach lakeside and the Long Corridor. There is NO side route that lets you cut into the path leading up to the Tower 😞. We decided to walk West along the corridor, missing the Marble Boat, and take in some views of lake as we looked for an electric or paddleboat rental. The Palace is host to beautiful nature scenery with quaint walking paths, trees swaying along the lake, lily marshes, and several different
Front of the Summer Palace
...with a random Chinese tourist to the right garden architectures. The Long Corridor has an intricate roof interior with a traditional but nonetheless graceful green-red pattern. Be sure to look under the pavilion roofs for the art. We visited the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity to see Empress Cixi's throne or her influence on the architecture, I can not recall. We were historied out at this point in the trip and were just seeing what sights we could pick out and take pictures of, ha. Very little sign reading anymore.
We received, I'd say, at least 20 glances by this time and a few "sneak" pictures by interested visitors - nothing as aggressive as in the Suzhou Gardens or the Bund where we got to take several pictures with Chinese intrigued to see foreigners or "da bizu" (big nose) - so I guess the palace gives off a slight majestic feel that makes individuals feel a bit more isolated, leading to shyness. The first boat rental service we came across was already closed (or not in operation cause it was still early!) so the instant we approached the next one I convinced Matt and Ryan that we needed to buy a reservation, despite it being paddle instead
of electric. At first paddling was fun, then it became an exercise (that's when the shirt came off), and then it just got kind of annoying because how tight on time we had become, especially after we spotted there was an electric boat rental service no more than 100 meters away from where we got our boat! However, if you are short on time, a boat ride can help you see more of the palace's garden (granted from afar but still see them) instead of having to walk ALL the way around Kunming Lake.
To be efficient, Matt and I did most of the paddling (almost easy for cross country runners) and let Ryan take Matt's place on the way back, with me paddling like crazy just to see how fast we could actually go...which was not very fast as the paddle were so small that you reached a speed where you just started kicking water up instead of forcing it backward. It was still alot of fun, for me at least. Though, one complaint, I wish I liked watermelon because that's the only refreshing item that seemed to be sold and not overpriced around the area, ha. A
Big Buddhist Statue
Located either in the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, near the top of Longevity Hill boat is a fantastic way to experience the scenery of Summer Palace and provides a great platform to eat, drink, and just relax with your friends (while two are paddling of course). To get the best view of Longevity Hill, you have to get on the lake. And paddling through the Seventeen-Arch bridge helps to give perspective to the magnitude of this imperial garden.
We returned the boat and hurried back to the South Gate near Little Suzhou to meet up with our friends. I spotted Sam walking along the Little Suzhou path (it cost money = I didn't do). I had to do some yelling but finally got his attention to snap a posed picture for him. Ethan and Branden were the last to arrive, I think, and had some great videos/pictures to show for it with one of an entertaining acrobatic show that took place every hour in one of the halls. On the Metro Rail back to our Hostel, Matt and I decided to try to take on the task of finding the Bus Station and Bus Number we would use to travel to the Jinshanling-Simatai portion of the Great Wall Trip the next day. We
Temple of Buddhist Virtue
Awkwardly pretty color scheme got off at the suspected station and did find a large bus docking area, but could not get definite information (partly due to our very basic Mandarin language level). However we did get two bus numbers 954? and 959? or something close to that. We grabbed a bite to eat at a Manchurian style restaurant where I had one of the best spicy pork dishes of my trip, some tasty corn pancakes, and got to try some of Matt's flavorful Sweet and Sour chicken dish. The restaurant is located right outside the Bus Station Warehouse in Beijing and is worth a visit both for the food and local atmosphere if you have the time.
Before heading back to the hostel, Matt suggested stopping by Tienanmen Square at night for some good pictures. And he was right, the square is
splendid, romantic ambient, couples, tourist mass, drinks beijing duck, south gate, kites, one other person vs alone or large group, convenient for pictures too
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