Hello all,
This morning I got up pretty early, checked out and left my luggage at reception. I ran into part of the tour group I'll be joining tonight. It seems that it'll be a tour that's already started somewhere else.
I walked to the station and got three different subway lines to the Summer Palace. The subway was a "cultural experience" this morning, because I'm pretty sure half of Beijing's 22 million people were on my train! I pretty much had my face pressed against someone else for most of the ride. Needless to say, when I scored a seat for the final three stops I was pretty happy.
Then I arrived at the Summer Palace and bought an all inclusive ticket, meaning I could enter various buildings around the complex.
The Summer Palace was formerly called the Garden of Clear Ripples and is basically where the emperor used retreat and chill out in the summer - think Peterhof in St Petersburg but a Beijing edition. It was built in the 1800s by 100,000 of Emperor Quianlong's men. 75% of the complex is taken up by Lake Kunming. In 1860 the Anglo French army burned most of the buildings to the ground during the second Opium War and they were restored in 1888. However, they were attacked again in 1900 and by 1949 had fallen into incredible disrepair and underwent a massive restoration.
I opted to not buy an audio guide or map and just wing it using the photo of my lonely planet guide's relevant page. Sometimes when you buy an audio guide it makes you feel like you have to see absolutely everything, and I wanted to just wander around.
I started off at Suzhou Street, some shops and bridges by the moat meant to look like the town of Suzhou that I'll be visiting next week.
After this I passed a few different Buddhist buildings atop a huge hill. It was so hot and humid today so by the time I got to the top I had pretty much sweated through my clothes - and by this point it was just 9.30am!
I looked at the buildings, took in the view then headed down the hill. Here I saw the Long Corridor which is 728m long and is painted with more than 8000 pictures. It reminded me of the one in Lucerne, Switzerland. I saw the lake, some beautiful bridges and checked out some more halls. The largest of these was the actual palace, which I had to climb a lot of stairs to reach!
Then I heard music coming from part way up the hill. I've no idea what was going on, but lots of Chinese people were gathered and were singing and dancing. It must have been some sort of national song because workers and tourists were all singing!! I wish I knew what was going on, but it was interesting all the same. A lady got me to dance briefly with her and everyone seemed very happy!
I continued walking around the lake and started to get really dehydrated. I had to buy FIVE bottles of water during the three hours I spent here. How crazy is that! Luckily it's cheap. Subsequently I had to visit the bathroom a lot as well haha. But the heat today was different. So humid you sweated the minute you stepped outside.
For a little while I sat and enjoyed a nice breeze by the lake and took in the views of the gardens, then I crossed a long white bridge to Dragon King Island. From here I caught a boat back to near where I had started walking. The lake was huge and I didn't have the time or energy to walk the entire loop!!
Finally I came across a huge marble boat. Not too sure how practical this would have been to actually sail, but it was pretty! The gardens near here were also pretty, and then I exited the park after a good three hours.
I caught the subway to Tiananmen West (thankfully it was a bit less crowded and I got a seat!). I had to walk to the square in quite a roundabout way due to security checkpoints but eventually I made it. I don't know too much about the square and will be back tomorrow with my tour so I'll have some information for you then. I asked a man to take a photo of me and he said "yes - if take one with me too!" It had to happen eventually haha.
At this point I had done a lot of walking and was very tired so I got a taxi to my next destination, Jinshang Park. Taxis are so cheap here, it was $2.50 Aussie for about ten minutes! The park has Beijing's only hill, which is 45m tall and was built from the dirt dug out of the moat for the Forbidden City!
My legs screamed "noooo!" but I climbed the steps slowly and made it to the top. It was a good view, but it was pretty smoggy today so you couldn't see very far. You could see the Forbidden City though, which I'll also be visiting tomorrow. I hate to think how hazy it would be when the smog is actually bad!!
I went to get a taxi back but jumped into two that didn't have meters. I stuck up for myself and asked them to pull over the second I realised, which meant I travelled about 100m free of charge - muahaha!! By then it was only a ten minute walk back to the hostel.
I've had a shower and done some washing. It's 4pm and at 6pm my tour group is meeting in the lobby for a meeting and then dinner. As always I'm slightly nervous joining the group, apparently my roommate has already been on the tour for a few days. Hopefully all goes well but I've loved every G Adventures tour I've ever done, and every roommate!! :) I can't see that stopping now.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment