China Trip Pt4: The Summer Palace

So where did the Chinese royal family stay during the summer heat? Why, at the almost equally big ” Summer Palace”!

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:-0…. The Summer Palace lies a little north of Beijing on a hill so with a spectacular view of the city. The Summer Palace is green, lush, peaceful. A very nice place to spend a day strolling!

SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCThe Summer Palace had a fantastic theatre, really huge and colorful! Opera and plays were performed here to entertain the emperor and his guests.

SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCGorgeous color, fabrics and patterns (I love patterns!!)

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Some temples are hidden on the hills and between the trees, the whole complex is very playfully set up and it almost feels like an adventure exploring it all!

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There was a “garden of harmony”, which was a bueaaaatiful pond with thousands of golden fish, waterlilies, little gazebos and everything. I can understand they spent their summers there!

ForbiddenSummerS-74SONY DSCForbiddenSummerS-75ForbiddenSummerS-76SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSCI think I liked the Summer Palace even more than the Forbidden City.. :-0 The weather was beautiful and it was such a nice day to stroll along these temples and discovering hidden stairs and hallways and caves and ponds and gates etc. The whole area covers about 3 km2, including a huge lake and park. There was no end to it!

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ForbiddenSummerS-77ForbiddenSummerS-71ForbiddenSummerS-72ForbiddenSummerS-70ForbiddenSummerS-67Wow I really really loved this place. We spent the whole day there, and still we didn’t see everything.
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Again, we have hundreds more photos of these beautiful places!! Wish I could show them all :-)

Ok, next post will be the last about China since we had one more day to explore the city. If I can fit all the amazing photos in one post that is…. Next up: China Trip Pt5: Beautiful Beijing!