A resort fit for an emperor?

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At first glance Chengde, appeared to be every travellers nightmare. Standing at the train station we were concerned that something had been lost in translation and we had ended up in the wrong town. Scores of unfinished buildings, rubble and litter made parts of the town look like a glorified building site. This perhaps made the contrast of the mountain resort even more striking.

Slap bang in the middle of the town is an extremely large expanse of land which is walled off from sight, enter through the gates and you can see the play place of emperors - From 1703 the Qing dynasty made this their summer resort - full of beautiful, temples, lakes and gardens it is truely breathtaking.

Surrounding the resort are a selection of Buddist temples, with different emperors trying to build bigger and better temples than their predecesors. It is at one of these temples that you can view Asias largest Buddah.

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