Beijing (III). The Summer Palace

Back from Xi'an, there were still some major sites to visit around Beijing: the Summer Palace, the Olympic Stadium and the Great Wall.

The first day after Xi'an started with a visit to one of the most impressive places in Beijing: the Summer Palace. It is simply amazing... and huge!! If you want to see everything and go around the lake and take some rest, you need a whole day, or several!! ;)

The place dimensions are really big and it is full of beautiful places. It is difficult to describe all the places and most of you probably never read all I write XD, so I will just comment briefly each photo and you can just check them out! But please, leave some comments!!!

The Summer Palace entrance is full of buildings like this, very colorful and with beautiful courtyards.



Water and rocks are an important part of the palace. Recently I was told that Asian culture mixes hard elements (rocks) with soft ones (water flowing) to create harmony. Since I was told that, I have noticed this pattern repeats in China, Japan, Thailand... and I guess all the other Asian countries. (Cám ơn My Anh!) An example here:



A very famous covered corridor where emperors used to walk.



The most beautiful temple in my opinion. Just on top of the highest hill in the Summer Palace.



It is so steep to climb there, that at some points you can barely see the temple on top. Really nice climb!



From the heights, the view of nearby temples was very nice.



And so was the view over the lake and the city!



On the other side, more temples.



A detail of a roof. This pattern repeated quite often, both in the Forbidden city and in the Summer Palace. Somebody knows why?!



And at the bottom of the mountain, near the entrance on the other side of the complex, an interesting, street with shops on both sides and a river in the middle.



This is the marble boat, one of the most famous places there.



From this gate, ships departed to other parts of the lake.



And this is a panoramic view on the Southern part of the hill, with my favorite temple up there!



There were some islands with small pavilions and beautiful bridges to access them. For me, it feels sophisticated. Much more stylist than any other thing in Western culture!!



And one of the gates to the complex of palaces I just shown to you.




Now, it is your time to comment! What do these pictures inspire in you? What do you think of the places I visited in China? What place do you like most?