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 The back of "Cloud Dispelling Hall". Click for more detail. |
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Things couldn't
have worked out better for me. My friend picked me up at the hotel lobby at 9:00am and after breakfast in a nearby restaurant, we took a taxi out to the Summer Palace. The weather was perfect, a crisp 15 degrees Celsius with blue skies and a warm sun. In retrospect, I find this fact extraordinary as the rest of my visit to Beijing, the skies were cloudy and it was much cooler, even to the point where it snowed one evening. |
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A brief history of the Summer Palace states that although it was built as a garden in the 13-14 century, it was not until the Qing dynasty in the 17th century that it began to resemble what it now does. However, the Summer Palace became famous (or infamous) for being the home of the Empress Dowager Cixi, one of the cruelest rulers in China's long history. She lived at the Summer Palace from 1889 to her death in 1911. Ironically, however, it was the Empress Dowager's vanity that contributed to the restoration of the Summer Palace, particularly after Anglo-French forces plundered it and burned it to the ground in 1860 (note to self: if I ever conquer a foreign country, do not destroy historical treasures.) Somehow, the Summer Palace survived the Cultural Revolution, a time when many important historical sites were destroyed or damaged, and in fact, has been renovated. Today, it attracts visitors from all over the world, but the vast majority are the Chinese themselves, and of those, many are the people of Beijing! One must admit that the Summer Palace makes a uniquely beautiful place to have a picnic with the family on a warm Sunday afternoon. |
 The intricacies of the painting and carvings of the buildings is amazing. One can only imagine the amount of man hours spent building this monument, let alone restoring it. |
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In fact, it became very clear that the people of Beijing love their Summer Palace. Many families were out strolling or sitting along the Long Gallery eating snacks. My friend told me in the summer, the place can become quite crowded and it can be exhausting just moving through the crowds of people to see everything. In the picture to the left (my favorite from this trip), a Chinese policeman and his friend take a photograph along the Long Gallery. |
| One of the first amazing sites you will see when you come to the Summer Palace is the Long Gallery. Basically, the Long Gallery is a covered walkway, about half a mile long (728m or 2,238 feet). What is extraordinary about the Long Gallery is along the underside of it's roof. Look up and along every pillar and every crevice, you will see the paintings of episodes from Chinese classic literature, flowers, architecture, and scenery. Because the paintings need to be touched up every 12 years to keep them from fading and the work of the artisans has varied over the years, the intricacies of the art is sometimes lost, but it is still breathtaking to behold. And to imagine that it goes on for almost half a mile is astounding. A section of the Long Gallery is photographed on the right which can be clicked on to see the details (about a 190K download). |  |
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About halfway through the Long Gallery, you arrive at the Cloud Dispelling Gate, the first gate you encounter on the long climb up Longevity Hill. I imagine it's called Longevity Hill because if you walked up and down those stairs once a day, you'd get enough exercise to live a very long life. There are many beautiful structures along the way up to the top of Longevity Hill, so it makes the climb worthwhile. And the spectacular view you are awarded when you reach the top is reason enough to make the climb (until you look down and realize that you have to climb down every one of those stairs you just climbed up). |
| I had mentioned earlier that the Chinese seem to love their Summer Palace and visit it for pleasure whenever they want to get away from the city. However, I neglected to mention one group of people who may not find visiting the Summer Palace such a pleasure. According to my friend, school children are either brought or assigned to visit the Summer Palace and write reports on what they learned. Here we see a young girl copying down the inscription on a plaque on the side of one of the buildings. I thought she was adorable, and despite the fact that maybe she was here to fulfill a school project requirement, she seemed to enjoy herself all the same, laughing and running around the park. |  |
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Three visits to China has been all it has taken to convince me what a wonderful and strange place it is. Politics aside, the Chinese are a warm hearted people with thousands of years of history to contribute to the rest of the world. I look forward to visiting China again with Jayne and Jeremy when he is ready to see another world. By Todd Fong |
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