My Journal

The adventure of the weekend was to go to the Summer Palace, in the Northwest suburbs of Beijing. Because maps are not really to scale (at least the English/tourist versions that I use for survival), it looked like this was an average park on the outskirts of Beijing. Was a I surprised! It is even more impressive because you really cannot see any of the buildings as you approach the park; walls and trees hide them. So you enter through a gate and are now standing around a huge lake with impressive temples and views. We spent 5 hours in the park and covered about one quarter of it. What I found most impressive was the Chinese Naval Academy practiced on the lake. That means that the boats/ships had to be transported there…Beijing is not near the water…

The Picture Album link will show some of the scenes on this crisp, autumn day.