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Published: February 20th 2011
Friday 11th February
We're leaving for Xi'an later on today but before we leave Beijing we are heading to the outskirts of the city towards The Summer Palace or Gardens of Nurtured Harmony as its sometimes known.
Once we've had breakfast and checked out we're then driven through the Financial district of Beijing and towards the foot of the mountains in the Northwest. On arrival we notice the beautiful houses that line the streets outside the Palace walls which is a far cry from the residential areas we visted yesterday.
We can already see The Summer Palace and Buddist Temple sitting proudly on Longevity Hill in the distance.
The Summer Palace grounds covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.
In the Summer Palace there's a variety of palaces, Pagoda's, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.
The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty commissioned work on the imperial gardens on the hill in 1749, gave Longevity Hill its present-day name in 1752, in celebration of his mother's 60th birthday. The front hill
is rich in the splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill is quiet with natural beauty.
In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List.
We entered through the South gate and immediately we are impressed by a large dragon statue surrounded by gorgeous traditional buildings. There's also some great looking rock sculptures scattered around the courtyard here all with different names and relevance's.
The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 and served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi in the 1860's and onwards.
Empress Dowager Cixi was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908. Selected by the Xianfeng Emperor as a concubine in her adolescence, she climbed the ranks of Xianfeng's harem and gave birth to a son who became the Emperor upon Xianfeng's death.
Walking around the first few buildings we are treated to some beautifully designed houses and Pagoda's which have all been repainted in wonderful reds, greens and blues. We cut through The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, into
a courtyard and arrived at the Grand Stage building. Its here Emperess Cixi sat and watched performances of music and dancing. As we stood and took photos of the musical instruments inside, three traditionally dressed Chinese women came dancing out to the sound of quaint Chinese music and we were treated to a little show of dancing. When the ladies left the stage a few men dressed in old tunics came on and started to play the chimes and bells. It was really nice and authentic to listen to as we toured around the other buildings in the courtyard as the sun shone in the icy conditions.
The corridors around the courtyard are full of artifacts and gifts given to Cixi from foreign diplomats over the years and theres also old photos of the chinese way of life in the 1900's which gave us another insight into things.
We left the Grand stage area and headed towards The Long Corridor which is a covered walkway in the Summer Palace running parallel to the Frozen Kunming Lake.
First erected in the middle of the 18th century, it is famous for its length of 728 metres and its rich painted decorations
of more than 14,000 paintings. The corridor was constructed so that the emperor's mother (Cixi) could enjoy a walk through the gardens protected from the elements. Along its entire length, it keeps to the transitional zone between the lake shore and the foot of the Longevity Hill, which is on the opposite side of the corridor.
We walked the entire length of the Corridor in the freezing cold all the time looking at the paintings on the wooden beams above which all told a different story from throughout the years. There's lovely scenic views from here over the frozen Lake Kunming and the Seventeen-Arch Bridge which connects the mainland to Nanhu Island in the centre of the lake.
To our right is Longevity Hill which houses the highest Buddhist Temple in China and we can see it sitting proudly on top in rich and vibrant colours. Its cost extra to visit the temple and its heaving with praying people so we decided not to enter and carry on enjoying our stroll through the Corridor. At the end of the corridor we came across the enchanting Marble Boat also known as the Boat of Purity and Ease.
The Marble Boat
is a lakeside pavilion built in 1755 but destroyed in 1860. It was restored in 1893 on order of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Like its predecessor, the new superstructure was made out of wood but was painted to imitate marble with imitation paddlewheels added on each side to make look like a paddle steamer. Its about 36 metres long and sits in the water on the Northwest shore and its pretty with the snow and the beautiful bridges in the background. Just a short distance from here we pass over some very steep arching bridges that crossed over the frozen rivers and all around us workers are sweeping up the fresh snow and shifting the snow back into the lake.
We've reached the exit to the west of the summer palace and its time to head off to the airport.
Ive managed to grab an English written chinese newspaper on the way back to the car and I'm surprised to read that all the snow we've had is in fact man made in a funny sort of way. I mentioned the 108 day drought Beijing has had and the drought in the North in an earlier blog, well, they
have seeded clouds in the North using cannons firing Silver Iodide. They used something like 2,200 shells of the stuff all over the country and almost 7kgs of Silver Iodide. This in turn produces all the snow which has fallen over the last two days. Right or wrong? We're not sure if its right to mess with nature this way but China doesn't seem to care as its helping to grow resources like wheat and crops which in turn is feeding the starved.
We've stopped at the side of the road to look at the Olympic Stadium called the Birds nest. Next to here is the water Cube Olympic swimming pool which we can almost see over the tree line from the roadside. We had hoped to visit the two buildings but we've run out of time because of heavy traffic and we need to get to the airport pretty soon.
Our guide Linda did all the hard work of checking us in and getting us to the Departure lounge which is all thanks to Chinahighlights.com. Our flight will be taking us to our next stop, Xi'an which is two hours travelling flying time.
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Fred
non-member comment
How's the food?
My great nephew was in China last year to study theatre and loved the trip. I would need to hire a 'plane to bring home all the wonderful Chinese porcelain, we just love it. First blog for some time all previous blogs have been deleted, don't know if there is a limit. Sam now in good shape and putting on some weight. How are the people, friendly? Much english understood? Wont be long now, love from us all here.