Visit to the Summer Palace

A the view north across Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace.

Today we headed to the Summer Palace, the former seasonal stomping grounds of the last few Chinese emperors, as well as the favorite hangout of the former Empress Dowager, Cixi. It was another beautiful day here with almost perfectly clear skies, a light wind at times, and warm temperatures.

For people who might be thinking about heading to Beijing for next summer's Olympic Games, I highly recommend the Summer Palace. It seems to be the consensus number three destination for visitors to Beijing after the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, so there's perhaps a light drop off in tourists there. Furthermore, there's plenty of room to roam there, with a tower, a huge lake, and a small island containing that temple at which Cixi used to pray for rain and a lookout point at which the emperor Guangxi watched the Chinese navy practice maneuvers on an artificial lake.

Aside from the sights, I'm continuously shocked at the friendliness of the Beijing people here. While some people are clearly just asking about your visit to the city for the purpose of attracting you to their store or souvenir stand, I've run into a few genuinely friendly people on the street who just want to practice their English and get to know a foreigner. I've had to rehearse the details of my visit here several times, but I've had a couple of interesting conversations. You certainly don't get that too often back in the big cities of America.

A few people have asked me about the state of the pollution here. While I certainly wouldn't say that Beijing is the cleanest city I've ever visited, it's really not as bad as I'd feared it might be, especially at the big tourist areas, which are generally spacious. We rode around in buses for awhile today, and at times the air quality bothered me then. But on the whole I've found Beijing to be a fairly modern city; because they have such a high population density, the people here have found a way to deal with all the traffic and other problems. Sometimes it's not pretty, but somehow this city of millions manages to get by. It's fast-paced and fascinating.

Well, tomorrow it's back to the airport to fly south to Huang Shan, also known as the Yellow Mountains. Hopefully I'll be able to check in again, perhaps with a couple more photos.