More China Delights…

On the afternoon after visiting The Great Wall of China & lunch at The Jade Museum we headed to Summer Palace.

Summer Palace is the former retreat of the Qing Emporers and is a stunning example of Chinese garden style. A favourite resort of the Empress Dowager Cixi. It is home to a stunning Marble Boat and Long Corridor, one of the longest passageways in the world. This is a covered walkway around the grounds with fabulous paintings above you and on the pillars.

Longevity Hill is about 60 m (200 ft) high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 square kilometres (540 acres), was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.

We walked around the Palace grounds then took a dragon boat to the exit.
Again, lots of walking on uneven ground and steps to get around but a magnificent sight to see so well worth it if you’re in Beijing.

After Summer Palace we headed back to the hotel to change for the evening for dinner and the Acrobat Show – this was amazing and the things they could do, I was blown away and very impressed. I must admit the theatre was a bit dated & messy and I’m not sure if we are including this next year but here is the sort of performances we saw. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we had missed it as wasn’t the highlight of the trip.

The next morning we were up early again and left the hotel about 8 am to head to Tiananmen Square. Built under the guidance of Chairman Mao Zedong, the square is said to hold a crowd of over 1 million people and is one of the largest squares in the world. It houses the Monument to the People’s Heroes and is also the final resting place of Chairman Mao himself in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

Choco the bear is my travel companion & comes everywhere with me when I’m away from Adam, he likes his picture being taken – Choco does China – very well!

There were queues of people lining up so I asked Andy our guide – why? Here is an interview with him so he will explain:-

So there you go, queuing up to pay their respects.

We then headed to the Forbidden City – this was one of my favourite places. So many buildings to view and if you wanted to see them all you would need about 4/5 days here but we only had a few hours so made the most of our time there.

Lot’s of walking and steps again to get around so not ideal for the less mobile – like most of China to be honest!

Forbidden City is the sacred centre of the Chinese Empire for 500 years and home to the Ming & Qing Dynasties, it is a vast complex of over 900 buildings and covers 180 acres. Since 1987 is has been one of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Its architectural style has been an influence on many imperial Asian buildings.