The Summer Palace, Beijing

Still catching up on posts from China, but better late than never, and honestly my concern about my posts being 'timely' or 'current' has flown out the window, probably never to return. Just a loose visual diary and artful outlet now, and that's all I need it to be. No strings, no pressure. These photos are from a morning exploring the Summer Palace in Beijing, which was by far my favorite place we visited. It was absolutely magical. No photos can actually do the atmosphere justice. It really did feel like some kind of fairytale land. There was a whole network of canals and cute long boats taking people from here to there, as well as layers and layers of hills and temples and halls, and a small 'mountain', or hill I guess, with a beautiful pagoda on top. We weren't even able to see all the grounds since we were on a group trip and were at the mercy of the group schedule. I really could have happily spent all day here, and really wish we could have.





















Along the water were little individual shops, which were selling or showing different wares- some were were mini museums with historic articles behind glass, some were replicas of shops from eras past, and some were food or souvenir shops. It was really fun popping in and out of them, smelling grilling food on the air, and hearing beautiful traditional music being played. Apparently the Emperor back in the day had this area built as a little shopping theme park sort of thing, so when visiting for the summer he wouldn't have to leave the grounds for anything. The whole park used to be a summer retreat for the royal crew. If I could time travel....