The Old Summer Palace is only one subway stop away from our school. After we visited the Lenovo Headquarters, the PKU shuttle dropped us off there and we received a tour of the place.
I’ve never been to Greece, but I sure felt I was there that day. The Old Summer Palace was where the emperor used to relax during the off-season (as if there was one) of his reign. The school hired a tour guide to tell us interesting facts about the place, but because there were too many of us, many people weren’t listening to what he had to say. I didn’t hear most of his words, so I can’t give much information about the place.
What I can give, however, are an abundance of beautiful photographs of the place.
The place is largely in ruins, from wear and tear over the years as well as damages from the Cultural Revolution.
The palace is huge and there are a lot of nice areas to walk around.
A walkway with hanging vines.
One of many, many lakes in the palace.
This was one of the school-arranged tourist place to visit, and it was through this day that I found self-arranged trips to be much better. Because we were on a time limit, we were pressured to walk through the place instead of pacing ourselves and looking at the place in detail.
Next post: Lama Temple, Imperial Academy, and Confucius Temple (also a school-arranged tour, but one of the better ones).
Andy Cheng 