Summer Palace

Summer is winding down, as is our time in Beijing. Chris and I realized this weekend that we had not yet seen the summer palace. One quick call to a back up driver and we were off...


This is definitely a "must see" in Beijing, as evidenced by the busloads of tourists posing for pictures everywhere. Thank goodness for them, there were plenty of clear signs pointing the way.


The summer palace was lovely, with lots of trees and greenery. As were walking along a forested path near the end of our visit, we commented that this must be the greenest and cleanest place in all of China.


This is the Dowager Empress' famous marble boat. In retrospect, restoring that boat instead of building up the imperial navy probably wasn't such a good idea, was it Cixi?


Here we are....still smiling after traipsing up and down stairs and around the big lake. Or are we smiling because we have seen all there is to see in Beijing and are now moving on? More pictures of the summer palace visit are here.