The Summer Palace was a Royal Garden for various Chinese dynasties. It is outside of Beijing a bit but accessible via the Metro. I took the metro today, and it’s well signed and easy to navigate. All you have to make sure of is which exit you took so you know where to get off when you return.

The Summer Palace now is a huge park which includes a very large man made lake. There are lots of buildings which were used for living, entertaining etc. It also includes the longest covered pavilion in the world. The pavilion is impressive, intricately painted with varying scenes. There are also smaller gardens throughout. The back side has fewer buildings and was a nice oasis in the middle of a crowded Chinese city.

I went to a hutong afterwards, which in contrast to the Forbidden City, is where more normal people lived, in grey buildings. It was jam packed with people though…being a Saturday.

And that’s a wrap on China! Till next time..

Link to all photos. (More will be added next week after I have time to edit them…and have faster internet! )