Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was literally where the imperial family went during the summers to relax. It is huge, very calming, beautiful, and spacious (I even had space and that is rare in Chinese tourist sites) location far from the city center. When you walk in, the first thing you see is the stone of longevity. I got my picture taken with that stone fore sure! Long life indeed. After that, we went on Kunming lake – we rented two pedal boats for an hour and floated. It was so soothing. We later walked around the Palace admiring the sites and climbed the Tower of Fragrant Buddha. I was a little disappointed because you could not see very far thanks to the wonderful pollution. Nevertheless, the Summer Palace was very beautiful. After spending about three hours walking around we had lunch in THE restaurant were Empress Dowager Cixi would listen to musical and theatrical performances. The theatre is still there, but they converted the adjacent rooms into dining halls. It was a nice Chinese lunch and then we were all tired and went back to the dorms. Luckily, the Summer Palace is an only about15 minutes away from my university so I can go back whenever I want and spend the whole day when the weather is not as hot and hopefully when there is not as much pollution.