Beijing, China: Summer Palace

We went to the Summer Palace today.  It was a great thing that we all had our rain jackets, because it rained the entire time we were walking around these beautiful grounds.  We entered in at the East Palace Gate and as soon as we walked into the Summer Palace grounds, we were greeted by a bronze lion and beautiful cherry blossoms tree in bloom.  

The Summer Palace is like the Forbidden City, in the sense that once you walk in, you commit to seeing the entire things because it is a one-way road.  And like the Forbidden City, it was gigantic and required so much walking from the kids.  However, unlike the Forbidden City, everyone loved everything about the Summer Palace.  It was beautifully stunning and kept up so well throughout the entire thing.  Even with the rain, we were in good spirits and loved the Summer Palace in all its beauty.  I must warn you though, it is much cooler at the Summer Palace then in Beijing.  We were all so very cold, and the kids wished they had more then just a rain jacket to keep the warm, we just weren't expecting it to be so much colder.

We started by walking through a few courtyards and gardens.  The flowers were abundant and the colors of the buildings were rich and colorful.  We walked through the Renshou Hall, or the Benevolence and Longevity Hall and the Dehe Court, or the Virtuous Harmony Court.  When we got to the Leshou, or the Happiness in Longevity House courtyard, we just fell in love with the pillars and surrounding colors. How can someone not love this place, especially with the names of all these buildings and courtyards.

As we left the courtyard, we walked through a small doorway and turned a corner to see the top of the beautiful Buddha Temple on the Summer Palace property in the distance. The top of the temple just rose up straight out of the trees. It seemed so far away and we really started to get a feeling for how huge the property was.  Our tour guide, Brian, told us that usually the crowds at the Summer Palace are just as bad as the Forbidden City.  I guess the rain scared all the tourist away, and I am so glad it did, because we loved the Summer Palace and we were able to really see the beauty of it.  I know that if it was filled with people there is no way we could have felt and seen the charm of the palace.

We then took the long walk through the beautiful long corridors.  Each paintings on the beams were completely and totally different.  They were painted with precise detail.  There were so many beams, and I just couldn't believe the work that went into this long beautiful walk.  We found ourselves slowing down so we could really take in all the paintings and colors.  Even the floor had a beautiful pattern of flower laid in the tiles.

The long corridors walk along the Kunming Lake provided a beautiful and covered walk accompanied by a ton of trees.  We came at the perfect time, because all the trees were in bloom, and the blooms were a gorgeous rich two-toned pink color.  I couldn't stop staring at the blooms with how vibrant they were.

We walked by the huge Payiun Gate which looked out into the Lake. It was one of the prettiest gates I have seen.  Across from the Payium Gate was the entrance to the Temple of Buddhist Virtue.  Brian was rushing us along, as usual, but Bri and I really wanted to see the temple, so Kevin and Jason took the kids to get ice cream and Brian hurried us along to see the temple.

I'm so glad we had the chance to go into the temple, because it was probably one of the prettiest Buddhist temples I have seen.  The architecture and the vibrant colors were gorgeous.  The roof was the golden color of royalty.

We had to walk up so many stairs to get to the main temple.  As we were walking up the stairs we could see a cluster of buildings to our right and the Bronze Pavilion to our left.

One of my favorite parts of the temple was the corridors in the main area before the worshiping hall, they were just like the long corridors we had just walked through, except the paintings were in better condition.  There weren't many people at all that walked all the way up the stairs, so we pretty much had the temple to ourselves.  If Brian wasn't making us sprint through the entire thing, I probably could have spend more then an hour just at the temple.

We pretty much had to run down the stairs to keep up with Brian, and we caught up with the Kevin, Jason and the kids.  We were rushed so fast that some of the kids were still working on their smoothies and ice creams. We continued down the long corridor and made out way to the Qingyan Boat, or Marble Boat.  We were told this was were the royalty would have their tea parties.  The entire boat is made from marble.

We made our way to the Half-Wall Bridge and enjoyed the beautiful landscape and flowers before exiting out of the West Palace Gate.  Bri and I both agreed that we wish we had more time here, there was so much to see, and it would have been wonderful to slow down and just take in the beauty.  So much detail was put into the Summer Palace, from the paintings on every beam, to the flowers laid in the tile on the floor, to the flowers and beautiful trees in the landscape.  Everything was welcoming, calming, and charming.  I would definitely come back to the Summer Palace in heart beat.