China part one: the old summer palace

As promised I'm finally posting about China. Yes, I'm still jet lagged (good morning 6 am, haven't seen you in a while). One of my favorite places in China was the Old Summer Palace, where the Emperor and his court would spend the summers. It was in Beijing, but as opposed to the Forbidden City (don't worry I'll be posting about that too), there are  tons of trees and shade to cool you down in the summer heat. 

These grounds were filled with large gothic style stone buildings, but unfortunately the entire grounds were burned and destroyed by the French and British during the Opium wars.

 What's left is a hauntingly beautiful park overgrown with greenery and destroyed stone buildings. The grounds are unbelievable gorgeous and the ruins are a reminder of times gone by. I loved touring and seeing all the old architecture and how the stone has weathered time.

We spent about half a day there which was plenty of time to explore. This place is huge! My guide book had a map (that was more confusing than helpful), but I would recommend starting at the South entrance and just wandering from there. We found a really cool stone"maze", that was kind of like a labyrinth. At the center was a beautiful stone gazebo that was absolutely beautiful!

About an hour into touring the Old Summer Palace we stumble upon a lake, where for some ridiculously cheap price you can take a boat to the other side of the grounds. 

This was definitely one of the more fun boat rides I've ever taken. The driver took us across the lake that fed into a small river. We road along the river and under some really beautiful ancient chinese bridges. 

The ride took us though parts of the palace grounds that were pretty empty. It was so easy to picture how the grounds looked when they were new, I almost expected to see an emperor wandering through the grounds as we floated by! About halfway through our ride we reached a stopping point and had to switch boats. 

The second half of the ride was definitely less peaceful, it felt like we were taking a tour of Disney land. While the first part lead us through the ancient grounds and allowed us to see different ruins and other parts of the ancient palce, the second part was full of giant multi-colored wire and fabric sculptures that were part of the 90th anniversary of communism that's currently being celebrated in China. 

While the new crazy-colored sculptures were fun to see, they were definitely a departure from the regal ruins we had just left. 

All in all the Old Summer Palace was so much fun. The old grounds and ruins and the boat ride were definitely the highlights of the day for me! Stay tuned for tomorrows post about The Great Wall. I'll leave you with a few more pictures I have from the day.