After some lunch we went back into the busy subway to head to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is one of the most famous tourist spots in Beijing. It's had a huge cultural influence on Chinese horticulture and landscape. It was originally built as a royal garden but was expanded by the Empress Cixi in 1888. To pay for the expansion she embezzled navy funds and was overthrown a decade later, by a naval invasion. For a more in-depth description on the layout of the Summer Palace click
here.
Because of Tsinghua's isolation from the general population you couldn't tell that we were traveling on one of the busiest Chinese holidays, May Day. Click on the video link to see all the people and the ever present smog:
Summer Palace 1.
Clearly it was hot, smoggy and crowded. We slowly made our way through the crowds and climbed up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Along the way Mom and Abigail were stopped by some Chinese women to have their picture taken with them. This was the first time but it wouldn't be the last during our trip. (I was used to it from living in Korea but Abigail and Mom weren't).
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People everywhere!
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| One of the massive gates we entered through. |
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| Hopefully you're getting the idea that it was crowded. |
Here's another video of us just walking around, listen to what Abigail and Mom say at the end:
Summer Palace crowds.
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| A beautiful Pagoda on the way up. |
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| The Tower of Buddhist Incense |
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| Walking up to the tower. |
Here's a quick video of us at the base of the tower:
Buddhist Incense Tower.
Once we reached the top of the tower we checked out the gorgeous interior and the view. However, one of the most surprising things I saw was a child peeing on the manhole while his father helped him!!!! I could not believe it and quickly snapped a picture:
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| Running from the scene of the crime! |
Now I know that this seems strange to us here in the US but it's pretty common in China. You can tell that this isn't a singular event because children's diapers are sold with a tear in the rear so a child can quickly squat wherever they may be.
The view from the top of the tower was breathtaking. It wasn't the scenery that was impressive but the architecture. Again, I have to stress that it wasn't raining.
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| Abby Mullen enjoying the view. |
We saw some cool statues on the way down, took the boat back the entrance and then headed back to the hotel completely exhausted from walking and not being completely over the jet lag.
