Day 213 - A winter's day in the Summer Palace

We rose nice and early, which was just as well because it took us 2 hours to transport ourselves just to the other side of Beijing to make it to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is where Emperors and Empresses took refuge from the summer heat that roasted them in the Forbidden City. On arrival we were much more impressed with this Palace than we were at the Forbidden City a few days ago and we spent the next four hours thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we strolled through temples, corridors, gardens, pavillions and a gigantic lake that became our playground for the day. Adam could hardly contain his excitement when we saw from high above amongst the Buddhist Fragrance Pavillion and Hall of Benevolence and Longevity the tiny dots of people slipping and sliding their way over a frozen Kunming Lake. Much to his disappointment we still had almost half an hours walk through more Palace grounds before Adam could partake in his share of icing around!! On the other hand, Liv decided to obey the sign telling us not to step on the ice (mainly out of fear of spending the rest of the day in freezing cold clothes if she happened to fall in!). Adam skated his way right out into the middle of the lake where he was rewarded with wicked views of the palace grounds above, pagodas off in the distant hills, and he slowly became weary of the growing cracks in the ice, the ever warming sun shining on the ice and the frozen fish only centimetres below!

When Adam eventually joined Liv on more solid ground, he convinced her to ventured just a few metres onto the lake, but soon we were both wandering around the lake. We walked across the 17 arch bridge to the temple on South Lake Island where the Empress traditionally prayed for rain during the summer. We had to pause for a few moments during our walk to stare at the crazy man in his speedos going for a dip amongst the ice! We strolled along a causeway and over numerous stunning bridges to eventually make it around the entire circumference of the Lake.

One of the great things about this palace was that it wasn't under reconstruction and it actually looked liked the real royal China of a past age that people imagine when they think of China.

After making our way around the lake we found ourselves amongst the Qing boat houses and staring at an immobile marble boat that rests on the northern shore of the lake.

After the better part of the afternoon we once again found ourselves on the 2 hour journey back to the hostel where we rested for an hour before making what was meant to be a simple journey to a Beijing Duck Restaurant. After getting completely lost (already a recurring theme) we settled for the first restaurant where Liv could read the characters for the famous Beijing/Peking Roast Duck - a meal that had been on the top of Adam's list of things to do (and nowhere on Liv's) since the beginning of this adlibing tour.

We returned home to plan and pack for our big day tomorrow when we venture out to the Great Wall!

Adlibing the wintry ice of the Summer Palace.