Day 24 (3 August) Summer Palace, Olympic Village and the home of Madame Sun Yat Sen

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Today was another long but wonderful day. We were collected at 9am and driven to the Summer Palace, the private garden home for the emperor. This private estate and garden covering 600 acres (again Big!) was built during the reign of the Manchus (Qing) period. It was started by the third emperor Qian Long. This was a very powerful period when he started opening China to the west. The emperor built the Summer Palace as a birthday present for his mother's 60th birthday. In 1860 and 1900 the palace was destroyed by the Anglo French army. Three quarters of the area is water. Although the place was heaving with tourists (mainly Chinese) the tranquility and beauty still shone through.

At this point I will interject with a report of a news item on Chinese television last night, that is Saturday evening. There was a serious half hour program about 'Damas' mainly female retirees. These retirees gather together for square dancing ie dancing in the town squares. A local band plays and the oldies dance. The younger generation are complaining that, firstly it lowers the tone of the neighbourhood and secondly the younger generation are embarrassed by their parents behaviour. But as I told my daughter regularly that's what mothers are for. The reason I mentioned the TV program was because as we entered the gardens we could hear a band and on the bandstand the oldies were having a blast with their dancing. Suddenly the band struck up 'Jingle Bells' which just cracked us up as shown in the video included here for your amusement.

Some older men were demonstrating Chinese calligraphy on the pavement. They practiced classic Chinese writing with temporary 'ink' which faded quickly.

There are three lakes in the Summer Palace region, two of which can only be seen from the mountains. At the top of one mountain foothill is the pagoda that the emperor built for his mother but she only went there once, if at all, because it is a long climb up. Don did climb up but more of that later. The lakes are connected by rivers and canals to the main Forbidden City palace in central Beijing, so that the emperor and guests could travel by boat to the Summer Palace.

We walked along the bank of the lake taking in the willow trees and the copy of the Marco Polo bridge. To be honest this is what I was expecting to see more of, as my ideas of ancient China are based on the willow pattern on crockery my parents had when we were children. At the edge of the lake we took a dragon ferry boat to the other side.

There, we saw the living quarters of the emperor's family. You have to bear in mind that this summer palace was used for just two months of the year. The grandparents' living quarters are in the centre of a group of living quarters. To the left are the parents and to the right the grandchildren. There was a disagreement between the dowager empress and her chosen emperor who was her nephew. She wanted him to marry her niece but those two hated each other. The marriage lasted no longer than five years without producing any progeny. The disagreement was so bad that a wall was erected in front of both houses facing into the courtyard so that they couldn't see each other. The dowager was so determined about the marriage - really only for a male child - that every time the emperor was with one of his concubines the dowager would arrange for people to squat under the window to make a noise to distract the emperor.

The trees in the garden are snow pines. The bark of the tree turns whiter the colder it gets. In order to comply with the theories of Feng Shui every garden must have a rock feature and this garden is no different. The ginormous rock feature was made from rocks dredged out of the lakes. We then walked down the 'Long Corridor' which runs for 728 meters. On one side was the emperor's living quarters and on the other magnificent views of the garden, the lakes and the mountains. It was a hazy day so we didn't fully benefit from the mountain scenery. There are 8000 paintings on tiles all down the corridor ceiling.

Don and Richard then climbed the 300 steps up to see the 'Bronze Pagoda' which is - yes - made of bronze. When the Summer Palace was destroyed by the Anglo French armies the the Bronze Pagoda withstood the flames but its bronze window frames were stolen. They were discovered in an auction in the 1980s and were purchased by the Chinese and restored to the pagoda.

On the lake is a marble boat. In the early 1900s the dowager empress decided that this boat should be modernised so decorative marble paddle wheels were added.

Before leaving the palace for the 1 km walk back to the car we went to the bathrooms. Above the urinals the signs read: "Your step closer helps keep it cleaner." Don asked our guide if this was a famous Confucian saying but Richard laughed and said it was not from Confucius.

From there it was to yet another restaurant for lunch. Then on to the Olympic village. We walked around the Water Cube and the Birds Nest. The Cube was the home of the swimming competitions. It is made of four layers of plastic which are inflated like a rubber ring, and protected from people trying to puncture them. The stadia are big (as expected) and hold a huge number of people. The Birds Nest stadium is an interesting structure which doesn't have a roof and therefore no air conditioning was installed. This seats 80,000 but for the finals they were able to add a further 30,000 seats. Don and I both felt that we are pleased that we saw these but ...

From there we went to the home of Dr Soong Ching Ling also known as Madame Sun Yat Sen. Her husband Dr Sun was the leader of the Revolution in 1911. Madame Sun was his second wife and was a diplomat in her own right, including Vice President of China. Madame Sun continued to live in the house as a widow. Shortly before her death in 1981 she was made the Honorary President of the People's Republic of China.

The house is in a building within imperial property in the middle of Beijing. The house fronts a huge lake. The house was never modernised as Madam Sun did not believe in spending money unnecessarily. So the furniture is very dated. However, the garden is magnificent and so peaceful. On one side is a huge pigeon coop where she kept pigeons and doves, a legacy from her husband. He loved these birds and after his death she continued breeding them.

By this time I was completely done in, so I left Don and Richard to wander down narrow streets in one of the sections in Beijing kept as it has been for longer than the past century. They reached the famous Smoking Pipe Street where products like tobacco were and still are sold. One of the shops was selling juice drinks chilled with dry ice, such that steam rose from the cups as people walked around drinking them through straws. Don suggested that road be renamed Smoking Juice Street. I sat in the car with Cheng near the Bell and Drum tower that was built in 1273.

We went to dinner at Dini's kosher restaurant where I enjoyed fish and chips. We also ordered food to take with us on our next day's tour in order to ensure that we had food to bring in the fast of Tisha B'Av.

We were in bed at 9:30pm and asleep by 9:31 !

SCROLL DOWN to see more pictures taken on this, our last tour day in Beijing.

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