Day #91: Summer Palace

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Apparently the Summer Palace expects 60,000 visitors per day, in contrast to the Forbidden City' 100,000, and it felt much more relaxed, covering a much larger area so everyone is more spread out around the park. My favourite part was Dowager Empress Cixi's Opera House, a tiered open-air theatre reminiscent of The Globe, where I could well imagine her in her private throne watching the operas (they had a few short traditional performances going on whilst we were there). We also hired a pedalo to explore the lake, giving us a bit of respite from the airless heat on land.

The Summer Palace as a whole is another of those places where you can understand why there was eventually a revolution - it is ludicrously extravagant, especially considering it was supposedly built with the country's naval budget.

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