Day 22: Welcome to Beijing!

Arrived in Beijing! We had traveled far enough back up north that we were in freezing weather again. Today was definitely a day for extra layers. We had breakfast in the hotel and learned, not for the first time, that throwing 50 people at a buffet at the same time is a bad idea. After breakfast we visited the Summer Palace. Can you say gorgeous? It was right on some bluffs on a huge lake. There were several buildings, a bridge going out to an island and a walkway that is labeled as the ‘longest art gallery’ in the country.

Summer Palace, Beijing

Can you see how cold we are in that picture? It was cold that day. Some people in our group were just impressed that the lake had ice on it (warm climate Australians, you guys really need to get out more) I was impressed by the palace on top of the hill. I so desperately wanted to climb up to the top and see the view, but after the formal tour we were given less than an hour to wander around on our own. I booked it down the art gallery walk way. It’s this long out door hallway and the entire thing is covered in hand painted drawings, it was beautiful but it wasn’t what I wanted to see.

Country's longest art gallery at the Summer Palace

I ditched Ryan at a coffee shop, he was freezing and didn’t want to run around in the cold. Without him I was able to move faster down to the very end of the palace where there was a solid jade boat tea house. (maybe it wasn’t jade but it was solid something fancy and it was pure white and stunning)

I turned up the stairs and ran past a couple of Asian tourists and managed to make it to the top of one of the palace levels. I had to rest and realized I didn’t have time to go up any higher which made me sad. But I got some nice pictures of the first view. Many times during that trip I was disappointed we didn’t get more time to explore.

History of the Summer Palace:

This is the story of the Dragon Lady who built the Summer Palace. She was born to a noble family and educated by her father. She was smart and beautiful and at the age of 17 became a concubine for the Emperor. She ended up bearing his only son so when the Emperor died, her son at the age of three became the next Emperor. Being so young, obviously a 3 year old can’t make state decisions, so she stood in for him as Empress. Even as her son grew she controlled the power and everyone knew it. Her son ended up dying early at age 16 and the Dragon Lady appointed her Sister’s son to be the next Emperor. He was also young and used as a puppet for the Dragon Lady to keep her power. Since women were traditionally not allowed in the men’s meeting halls she would sit behind a beaded curtain and conduct business. She ruled for 48 years.

Dinner was another “western” Chinese dinner except this one was a total failure compared to the first. The food we got was small and cold. The salad and dessert were served buffet style but they were really bad at keeping it stocked and once again, sending 50 people to a buffet at the same time is a BAD IDEA. Gump even put in a complaint to the restaurant.

Later that night we had a knock on our hotel door. Gump felt so bad he had gone out and bought us all apples. He was so sweet, best tour guide ever.