Today is our first full day in Beijing. After falling asleep at 4:30 yesterday after noon, we awoke about 5:30 this morning. Fortunately breakfast at the Executive Lounge started at 6:00 AM. After a Chinese breakfast of Chinese noodles and shrimp dumplings, we started our tour of the Summer Palace about 7:30. By taxi it was about a 45 minute ride to the northwest corner of Beijing where the Summer Palace was located. Even at 7:30 the traffic was heavy.
Located on the shores of Kunming Lake, the Summer Palace is the grandest imperial garden in China. It was constructed between 1749 and 1764. Between 1860 and 1903, it was razed by foreign armies and then rebuilt. It was used as a summer residence by China's imperial rulers - as a retreat from the main imperial palace now known as the Forbidden City. The palace is most often associated with Empress Dowager Cixi, who lived here for much of the year. It is virtually a museum of traditional Chinese garden arts that blends rocks, trees, pavilions, lakes, ponds, paths and other features to create a poetic effect between different scenes.
It has more than 100 sightseeing buildings, more than 20 large and small courtyards, and 3555 ancient buildings. It also has more than 3000 pavilions and smaller outbuildings and more than 1600 old tree and famous wood species. The artificial landscape like the pavilions, long corridor, halls, temples, bridges along with the natural mountain and wide lake are harmonious with each other and fused together artistically.
The gardens that became the Summer Palace date from the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). Later, the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan (Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368), who wanted to improve Beijing's water supply, ordered the construction of canals to transport water from the Western Hills to the Summer Palace. He also enlarged the main lake (now called Kunming Lake) to act as a reservoir.
In 1750, Emperor QianLong (1736-1796) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), who travelled extensively throughout China noting places of beauty, added substantially to the gardens of the Summer Palace. He appointed designers to reproduce the styles of various palaces and gardens from around China.
In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing and set fire to many of the buildings within the Summer Palace.
In 1886, Dowager Empress Cixi, with embezzled funds from the Imperial Navy, restored the grand gardens. The reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace continued for ten years and included the Marble Boat.
After completion of the renovation, Cixi renamed the gardens 'YiHeYuan' ('Garden of Peace and Harmony'), its official name today. The Empress Dowager Cixi moved her administration to the renovated YiHeYuan in 1889 and the gardens that had long been an imperial pleasure ground became the primary Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace is sometimes referred to as the 'New Summer Palace'. The original primary Summer Palace (YuanMingYuan, and now also known as the 'Old Summer Palace') was demolished in 1860 by invading Anglo-French forces. In 1900, eight allied nations invaded during the Boxer Rebellion and destroyed the newly reconstructed New Summer Palace. Only when the fugitive Cixi returned to Beijing in 1903, did full-scale restoration begin. In this way, the Summer Palaces - both old and new - are also associated in popular culture with the destructive interference of foreign powers.
Today's Summer Palace is more or less the same as the palace rebuilt from 1903. After the success of the 1911 Republican Revolution, the Summer Palace was opened to the public. Then, after the last Qing Emperor PuYi was thrown out of the Forbidden City in 1924, the Summer Palace was turned into a park, which has become a popular and relaxing destination for both domestic and international tourists.
We arrived about 8:30 and the crowds were still light. Walking in from the East Gate, we turned left toward the Seventeen Arch Bridge. The first stop was to a toilet. Hurrah, one of the women’s stall was a western style bathroom. All the others were the eastern or squat over a hole type bathroom. I am getting too old to try and squat!!!!
The Summer Palace is a beautiful location. It reminded me a lot of Burke Lake in Virginia, except that it has pagodas and temples as its buildings. Many Chinese families come here to relax, enjoy the scenery, walk around the lake, and have a picnic. The East Gate area contains many of the buildings where Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu (late Qing Dynasty) conducted government business. Kunming Lake covers about three quarters of the Summer Palace. It is located on the southern edge of Longevity Hill where most of the more interesting architecture and temples are located. The lake is man-made with a depth of only about 5 feet. There are a total of 6 bridges around the lake; the largest is the Seventeen Arch Bridge which connects the eastern shore with South Lake Island. Kunming Lake was designed to represent the traditional Chinese gardening practice of “one pond, three hills.”
We walked across Seventeen Arch Bridge where several people were flying their kites. They were quite high in the sky. One of the men who was flying a kite said that he had 1 kilometer of line for his kite. It is amazing that in China they block Facebook and Google, but the Chinese people have certainly adopted the rest of western technology. All along the bridge where people with selfie sticks taking pictures every 5 feet. I’ve always wondered what they do with all these pictures. Most of them do not even contain any of the beautiful pagodas and temples that are located in the Summer Palace.
On the island were a few temples, but you could only look into them; you could not enter them which was the case with all the temples at the Summer Palace. We decided to take one of the many dragon boats that took people from different parts of the Summer Palace to Longevity Hill. Again we were amazed at the number of people taking pictures of just their friends or family. One man must have taken about 20 pictures of his wife standing in the back of the boat.
Longevity Hill rises above the lake and contains many halls and temples including the Buddhist Temple of Incense and Tibetan Temple that were built on the top of the hill. Our first stop was to the Marble Boat, which is neither a boat or made of marble (go figure!). Many Chinese point to this as a symbol of China’s demise and the excessive waste of the former emperors. Since Cixi used money diverted from the Chinese Navy to restore the Summer Palace, this boat is said to be Cixi’s backhanded reference to the source of the money. To add insult to injury, in 1888 (just after the restoration was complete), China’s small navy was destroyed in a skirmish with Japan.
We then started walking down the Long Corridor, a covered wooden promenade about a half mile long that runs along the northern shore of Kunming Lake. Each crossbeam, ceiling, and pillar is painted with a different scene from Chinese history, literature, or geography. It is 728 meters long, the longest corridor in the world. It is famous for the beautiful architectures, winding-changing shape and extremely rich and prestigious paintings. Bridges, boats, willows, lotus flowers and attractive landscaping make this a pleasant place to soak up the atmosphere and take in the distant view. There are a total of more than 14,000 pieces of paintings, including landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and portraits on the paintings that were drawn from the Chinese classics.
By now this part of the Palace had become very crowded, mostly by tour groups with their leaders loudly explaining (in their language) what the tour group was seeing. We walked about halfway down the long corridor until we came to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. It was an extra ticket to enter this area but we felt it was worth the money. This is one of the first temples that you see by the side of the lake as you enter the Palace. Located in the center of the Summer Palace at the front hill of Longevity Mountain, it is also one of the main buildings of the Summer Palace. The tower was built on a 20-meter-tall stone base, measures three stories and 41 meters in height, and is supported by eight ironwood pillars. It was originally meant to be a nine-story Buddhist pagoda built to resemble the Yellow Crane Tower, but the Qianlong Emperor ordered the construction to be stopped just after the eighth story was built. In 1860, the tower was destroyed and then it was reconstructed by Guangxu Emperor. In 1900, it was seriously destroyed again in during the Boxer Rebellion, but reconstructed in 1902 by Empress Dowager Cixi. Empress Dowager Cixi visited the tower to offer incense and pray. It faces Kunming Lake in the south and is backed by the Wisdom of Sea. There are various buildings around the tower symmetrically. It was a strenuous climb of about 120 steps straight up the side of Longevity Hill. But we were rewarded with beautiful views of the lake and the temple below us.
The Temple of Sea of Wisdom (a Tibetan style temple) is located behind the Tower of Buddhist Incense at the top of Longevity Hill. Over one thousand Buddha statues were exquisitely carved in rows in the outer walls. In 1860, when the British-French soldiers broke into the Summer Palace they destroyed most of the Buddha statues that their bayonets could reach, although the stone temple itself survived. Built entirely of bricks and stone, without a single beam or rafter, the temple is also called "beamless hall". In "the Sea of Wisdom", people worship a statue of Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) in a sitting posture. The statue sits upright on the lotus throne with a pure jade bottle in one hand and willow leaves in the other. In the niches on both sides of the entrance to the hall, there sit respectively the statues of Manjusri and Samantabhadra which are said to be cast in the reign of the Emperor Qianlong. There are many beautiful mural paintings on the inside walls, mainly depicting auspicious clouds and flowers.
By the time we reached the bottom of the hill our feet were killing us and we had almost reached the East Gate from which we had started our walking tour. Although we did not see all of the buildings (and again you could not enter them; just view them from an open door), we decided to leave the Summer Palace and return to our hotel. By now Longevity Hill was very crowded – it was almost uncomfortable to try and walk on the pathways crowded with families and tour groups. With a little help from a friendly Summer Palace guide, we got a taxi and were soon headed back to our hotel.
A little note about taxis and driving around Beijing. It is not for the faint of heart!!! Although there are well marked lanes on the highways, there were many times when two (or three) cars were trying to drive in the same lane. I counted at least 5 times where we missed another car by about 2”. And taxi drivers love to weave in and out of lanes. The best thing is to just buckle up, sit back, close your eyes, and PRAY!!!! And amazingly there are few accidents.
When we arrived back at the hotel, Bill asked one of the hotel greeters where the locals went to eat lunch. She directed us to the shopping center right next door. Bill found at Chinese restaurant there that at least had English subtitles on the menu, but that was the only English spoken. It was mainly a sushi restaurant, but they at least had fried dumplings (or potstickers as we call them). I had them and Bill had a beef and rice dish that he said was spicy but okay. He had a Beer and I tried their hot tea (they did not have bottled water), but the tea was absolutely tasteless. So much for “When in Rome…” Leaving the shopping center I noticed that they also had a Pizza Hut and a Subway. That would have been a much more enjoyable lunch.
Back in our room, we tried to stay awake, but by 2PM we were both sound asleep. I finally work up at 6 and we went up to the Executive Lounge for some wine and hors d’ourves. It turns out it was more of a dinner buffet – they had chicken quesadillas, beef short ribs, Irish stew, Chinese noodles, and salads. So much for trying to go out for Peking Duck. That will be on tomorrow’s agenda.
It is now almost 9 PM and Bill is back asleep. I will close for now and try and download my pictures before I forget what they are.
12 Sep Back Lakes Walking Tour
Today we took a taxi to the start of our back lakes walking tour. On the map it looked like only a 2-3 block walk, but in reality it took about 20 minutes by taxi to reach our starting point. After the taxi left us off, we had to walk through a small hutong (small neighborhoods with narrow streets and alleys). Hutongs were built around courtyards where as many as four or five families lived. Today there are small houses and shops in these areas. Many of the hutongs have been demolished to make way for high-rise buildings and condominiums.
The back lakes area is a wonderful place to walk and very popular with the locals. It is composed of three lakes and the tree-lined neighborhoods with their now-closed mansions that surround the lakes. Prior to 1911, the only people allowed to live in this area were people with connections to the imperial family. Today the lake is lined with bars and cafes and is quite a popular night spot.
After walking down a street dotted with large mansions and through a small park where children were playing and adults were gathered to exercise or play card games, we reached the shores of Hou Hai Lake (Back Lake). We tried to find the teahouse recommended in our walking guide, but it was closed.
One of the unique aspects of this lake is Wild Duck Island. It is a man-made island built of steel for the ducks in the area. March is a particularly busy time on the island as it is mating season. There were about 8 ducks on the island as we walked by.
As we walked around the lake we saw the former imperial palace of the wife of Sun Yat-sen, modern China’s founder. It is now a garden and on weekends is a very popular place for brides to have their pictures taken. There was also a temple dating back to 1719, but today it is a kindergarten school.
From the lake area we walked several blocks to the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. These two towers were once the time-keeping center during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The Bell Tower was used to announce the time during the day (at 2-hour intervals) and the Drum Tower announced the time at night. These two towers are located just to the north of the Forbidden City on the north-south central axis of Beijing, known as the backbone of Beijing. This imaginary central axis, with a length of 7.8 kilometers, is the longest and best-preserved central axis in the world.
From the south at Yongdingmen Gate to the north at the Drum Tower, almost all of these important sites are located on this axis.. It passes through Zhengyangmen Gate (popularly known as Qianmen), Tiananmen Gate, Duanmen Gate, and Wumen Gate (the southernmost entrance to the Forbidden City and the one used today to enter the Forbidden City). From Wumen Gate, it continues north through the Forbidden City until it reaches the north gate, Shenwumen Gate. It then passes through Longevity Pavilion atop Prospect Hill and ends at the Drum and Bell Towers. In ancient times, the central axis, which was popularly known as the "dragon vein," was seen as a royal line. According to Chinese tradition, the central axis is a fixed line. Traditional thinking holds that the north-south axis coincides with the Earth's meridian. A number of grand royal buildings were built along the axis with the Forbidden City at the center. Emperors in ancient China believed they were the center of the world, so all their palaces should be built there.
We arrived too late to watch the drum ceremony and it would have been a 2 hour wait for them to begin again in the afternoon. We decided instead to take a taxi to the Lama Temple and Confucius Temple.
The Lama Temple Beijing, or Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama, a renowned lama temple of the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Built in 1694, Lama Temple was originally the home of Qing Emperor Yongzheng before he became emperor. In 1723, Emperor Yongzheng contributed half of the grounds to the Tibetan monks of the Yellow sect and left the other half as his temporary palace residence. The Buddhist buildings in this peaceful complex are topped with ornately decorated, yellow roofs. Yellow was the imperial color of that time, which denotes the high status of this temple, a scaled-down imperial palace.
Lama Temple features five large halls and five courtyards with beautifully decorative archways, upturned eaves and carved details. It houses a treasury of Buddhist art, including sculptured images of gods, demons and Buddhas, as well as Tibetan-style murals.
The Temple is still in use today and many people where there burning incense as an offering to Buddha. The smell of the burning incense candles was overwhelming.
Our last stop of the day was to the Temple of Confucius. Today it is not in use, but acts as a museum. It was built in 1302 and was the place where people paid homage to Confucius during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. It is the second largest Temple constructed for Confucius. The largest one is located in Qufu, Shandong Province. Constructed right next to the temple was the Imperial College. There is not much to see, but one exhibition hall did give an account of Confucius life.
By now our feet and legs were rebelling against us, so we took a taxi back to the hotel to relax over tea and cookies in the Executive Lounge.
For dinner we went to the famous Quanjude Peking Duck Restaurant. This was one of the first Peking Duck Restaurants in Beijing. During the era of Chinese dynasties, Peking Duck was prepared by the royal chefs for the imperial families. However, once the dynasties were overthrown in 1911, the chefs were out of work. So they established restaurants where they could continue to cook the duck as they had for many years. Before roasting, the skin is separated from the meat to allow air to circulate and thus result in the crisp skin. After the duck is cooked, it is brought to your table and sliced by the chef. Bill ordered the duck; I opted for a dish of sauted shrimp. Most locals eat the duck by dipping it into a sauce and then wrapping it in a thin pancake. Bill did not want the pancake, but he had the whole duck to himself. It tasted okay, but it was very dry. My shrimp were very good.
Tuesday, 13 Sep The Forbidden City
Today was one of the days where you would like a “do over.” It started out fine – we had a good breakfast and then checked out of the Marriott. We asked for a cab to take us to the Forbidden City, which they did, but then the day went downhill. Our cab driver took a very long route to the Forbidden City which is only about 3 miles from the hotel – it should have cost no more than 20Y. However this cab ride cost 51Y and the driver left us off at one of the side gates and we had to walk about a mile to get to the entrance gate. Needless to say, when we returned to the Marriott we put in a complaint about this cab. We had his cab number, but we do not know what will happen, but the concierge said that he would contact the company about this as the cost was way out of line.
Once in the Forbidden City we spent about 3 ½ hours walking around. It was very crowded (as was expected) – the number of tour groups was unbelievable. However, tomorrow we will be one of those tour groups. The only real complaint about these groups is that the tour guides all use a microphone when talking to their group and they are all very loud. It’s a wonder that the tour groups even know which guide is talking to them. And the crowds, especially the Chinese are very pushy to get in to take their pictures – I finally decided that I had to be the same way and started using my elbows to shoulder my way through. Fortunately we wanted to spend our time viewing the areas of the city that we would not see tomorrow, and those areas came with an additional cost so there were not as many people. We toured the Tower of Clocks and Watches. The clocks of the emperors who lived during the Ming and Qing Dynasties were truly amazing. One had a waterfall that helped tell the time, others were very ornate with moving birds and animals, and decorated with precious stones. And some were huge – over 12 feet tall and about 4-5’ wide.
We then walked to the area where there was the 9 Dragon Screen (one of only 3 in the China). Nine is the most important number in the Chinese language and these dragons control the rivers so they breathe water instead of fire. We then walked around the palace where the emperors and their families lived, and ended up in the area where the emperors’ consorts and concubines lived.
The Forbidden City (or Palace Museum as it is known in China), was the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. In early 15th century, large-scale construction involved 100,000 artisans and one million civilians. The construction took 14 years and was finished in 1420. In the following year, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. Twenty –four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties ruled from the Forbidden City. The last dynasty fell in 1911, but Emperor Puyi (1906-1967, ruled 1909-1911) still lived in the inner court. It was not until 1925 that the complex was converted into a museum.
The Forbidden City is huge –about 180 acres. And the grandeur of the city is unbelievable. I can understand why the emperors who lived there did not want the ordinary people to enter. There are over 980 halls and buildings, but after a while they all looked the same. Traditionally, the Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The Outer Court or Front Court includes the southern sections, and was used for ceremonial purposes. The Inner Court or Back Palace includes the northern sections, and was the residence of the Emperor and his family, and was used for day-to-day affairs of state.
In the Outer Court are three halls (known as Three Great Halls). The first is Hall of Supreme Harmony. This hall was used for only the most important ceremonies (enthronement of an emperor, the emperor’s birthday, and the celebration of the New Year. This is the largest wooden hall in China, and the most elaborate and prestigious of the palace’s throne halls.
Immediately behind this hall is the Hall of Perfect Harmony. This hall served as a resting place for the emperor on his way to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The emperor received officials in the Ministry of Rites, and rehearsals for ceremonies were also held in this hall
To the back of it is the Hall of Preserving Harmony, second to only the Hall of Supreme Harmony in grandeur and spaciousness. In this hall each year on Lunar New Year’s Eve, the emperor feasted his ministers and high-ranking officials and nobles of minority nationalities to celebrate the “achievements” of the feudal rulers. During the Qing Dynasty, the emperor also supervised the final stage of examinations to select officials from among scholars from all over the nation. In the back of the hall is a 200-ton marble slab that took 20,000 men supposedly 28 days to transport it to this position from a mountain about 31 miles away.
After leaving the Forbidden City we walked to Ben Hei Park (about ½ mile from the Forbidden City).
Located in this park is the White Dagoba, a Tibetan-style stupa. It was built in honor of the 5th Dalai Lama’s visit in 1651 – however another significant piece of information is that this is the place where Genghis Khan and Marco Polo first met in 1271. We made it to the park, but our feet and knees were rebelling against us so we decided not to try and climb the hill to see the White Dagoba up close. We decided instead to return to the hotel. That’s when the day really went downhill. It is impossible to get a taxi in Beijing, especially near the Forbidden City. Apparently there is no place for taxis to stop and pick up passengers. After trying unsuccessfully for over an hour, we finally accepted a ride from one of the hop tack drivers who said he would take us to Tiananmen Square. What a mistake!!! First of all, these drivers do not follow any rules of traffic. They weave in and out and when they come to a red light, they just continue through as if they have the right of way. And if there is traffic ahead of them in their lane, they just drive in the oncoming lanes. Meanwhile we were hanging on for dear life. Talk about Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!! When he finally left us off about a mile from Tiananmen Square, the cost was 600Y – about $90 dollars!! And we still could not get a taxi to stop and pick us up. We finally went to a nearby hotel and they called a cab for us.
Once back at the Marriott, we collected our luggage and had them call us a cab to take us to the Xizhao Temple Hotel where we are to meet our tour. It is a nice hotel, but the beds are extremely hard. It will take some getting used to them, although Bill likes a firm bed. It is now 7:10 PM and no one from our group has checked in. We finally met out trip leader Lena abou 8 PM. She had just arrived from the pre-trip to Shanghai. She gave us a little information (more to come at our orientation meeting tomorrow morning). But she did point us to several restaurants that are close by. We chose one (and it had English subtitles in its menu). We ordered a plate of fried noodles and a dish of pork and leek dumplings. It was quite good and very filling. The bill, including Bill’s Coke and my water, came to 66Y (about $11). As we walked toward the hotel we saw some red and green lights hovering in the sky. One of the hotel employees said that they were kites and because there was no wind, they did not appear to be moving.
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