Summer Palace — 颐和园

Second time back to Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) and once again I’m none the wiser. Throngs of people, high heat — what do you expect from Beijing in July?

This trip was an outing sponsored by my language school. I about dodged out of it but my classmates managed to convince me to alter my plans. As per the last outing, my teachers had the customary homework sheets ready for me to interrogate the unsuspecting masses with.

Yi He Yuan really is a massive complex with a lot of imperial history behind it. Destroyed by Western forces, rebuilt by the infamous Empress Cixi and today contains more people than your average Canadian province.

The English name is more of a nickname than anything and originates from the fact that Cixi used the palace predominately in the summer due to the (slightly) lower temperature of the area.

This time around I managed to get to Su Zhou Jie — as the school fronted the additional ticket price needed for entry. It is an unusual spot that made for some nice photographs. Additionally, it started raining which further enhanced the ambiance (chiefly by scaring the masses of tourists away).

Su Zhou Jie was originally meant for one of Emperor Qianlong’s concubines, whom legend has it grew so homesick that the Emperor relocated a sampling of people/family/friends from Su Zhou Province so she could always have a nearby sanctuary of sorts.

Later, it became a retreat Chinese royalty used to sample the everyday life of “lesser peoples.”

August 5th, 2009 in Journal, Travel | No Comments »