Beijing

Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was a pleasant area on the outskirts of Beijing. The royal family would take the barge down to the lake where it was much cooler in the summer. Now, the area is a very popular spot for family outings. You'll see families strolling along the shoreline enjoying the breeze and the view. There are several courtyards off the main area where royal staff and perhaps royal family members themselves spent their time where the strollers can now sit and relax. Boating is popular on the lake. Small boats can be rented and there are larger tour boats as well. It's a place of a variety of family activities.

Dru and Dave along the lake. The building on the hill in the background is a monastary.

The Summer Palace

Dru getting on the tour boat that we rode across the lake.

A beautiful scene of the lake, a boat in the foreground, the monastary in the background, all framed by a lakeside tree.

Another of my favorite lake scenes: silhouettes of people on a small point that juts out into the lake. A very peaceful place.

An exclusive apartment building. The darker rectangle on the side is a movie screen!

The Olympic Stadium, or Bird's Nest. We got to see it, but couldn't stop and go inside.

The old city wall, the city's protection before the Great Wall was built.

Dave and Dru in their rickshaw

Off we go

Here's half of our group seated around the table in our Chinese host's home. The event was not like walking into a real Chinese family's home and sitting down to dinner with them. The tour company contracts with carefully selected Chinese to host small tour groups in their home for dinner, so, it was just our group eating with ourselves in their home.

Our host prepared the meal himself; he said this was becoming his vocation. This is where he prepared the meal for all 14 or us, using the two-burner stove and a hot plate. He did have two helpers bringing out the food as he prepared it. And his little boy ran around the house making himself known as four year olds are prone to do. By the way, the food was quite delicious.

Just to complete the scene, this is the courtyard of the home where we ate looking out from their front door. The Walled City has many compounds such as this. The compound has its own gate and inside there might be four to six homes. The other buildings you see here are the neighbors' homes. The Walled City, by the way, is a highly desireable place to live. It was not clear whether the residents owned their homes or if the houses were assigned by the government.

I couldn't close out this section without sharing a portrait of the famous Dragon Lady.

Check out the other pages:

Beijing

Summer Palace

Back to the City

Rickshawing into the Walled City for Dinner