Today we traveled to the Summer Palace, which is in Beijing. It is not far from the Forbidden City, which is the Imperial Palace. It is a place where the emperor would take vacations or weekend getaways. It was almost as big as the Forbidden City and surrounds a man-made lake. Built in 1888 by the Dowager Empress Cixi, it used the entire budget for the Navy for that year. Cixi said, “Navies come and go, but this palace will last forever.” At least she was right about that. It shows a lot about how the royal family used money and power however they wanted. The palace also has space for all of the Emperor’s concubines.
The Palace is home to “The Long Corridor,” which is a 728 meter corridor linking parts of the compound. Since the lake was man-made, they used the dug up ground to form a large hill at one end of the lake. The emperor’s quarters were up there, along with a Buddhist shrine. The throne room was very regal, with a lot of symbolically significant statues such as cranes and turtles. The view from the top of the hill, or at least as high as we could go, was very beautiful, even though it was raining and dreary. When it is clear, you can see for miles.
We spent about 6 hours at the Palace, and got back from eating lunch/dinner at about 5:30. At that point everyone was tired, and we have a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow we are climbing the Great Wall, so everyone just went to sleep early. I can’t wait for the Wall, it is the day I was most looking forward to the entire trip.
ginsbergplus3china2012 