Our Vacation Called Life: The Sights in Beijing

I never thought China would be on the list of places we would get to travel ! Jeff had to go visit the Beijing office the last week of June, so I decided to tag along for some sight seeing. I was a little nervous about going. I had heard you can't drink the water or eat fresh fruits/veggies that have been washed in the water. Plus rumor has it the cuisine there is unlike any where else I have been to this point. I packed a bunch of protein bars and some dried fruit to have some snacks to sustain me in case the food made me sick.

From the start of the trip it was clear I would be on my own during the day and most nights as Jeff would be busy with work so he had his coworker hire a college student to serve as my tour guide for a few days. I was glad to have her because the language barrier is definitely a big challenge! I was very naive to how few people would actually speak English. The cab drivers didn't even speak English. I had to carry a card from the hotel with me that had the hotel name and address in Mandarin in case I got lost.

First up was the Summer Palace, a summer resort for the Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 1800s. She was the last ruler of the Qing dynasty. Yeah, don't worry if you are reading this asking yourself who the heck that is! I realized how little I knew about Chinese history when I was visiting all the sights in Beijing. It was hard at times to keep track of all the stories my tour guide was telling me because I didn't have a frame of reference for them. It's like someone telling you all these stories about different US presidents and their families then coinciding it will all these battles and wars.... but you know absolutely nothing about US history. Makes sense, right? :)

Entrance to Summer Palace. . .glad to have my tour guide because
otherwise I would have no idea what this sign said.

It seems I have a knack for picking landmarks with a lot of stairs!!
We are about to walk all the way up to the top of the palace in this picture.

Still climbing. . .

View from the top. . .it was quite a grey day out!
The lake you see is all part of the palace grounds.

In the picture above you can see gold roofs and brown roofs. The color gold represented the emperor and power so palace buildings always had gold roofs. The surrounding buildings with the brown roofs would have been for the staff.

Cool looking stone boat

Here's a shot back across the lake to see how big the main part of the palace is.

Day 2 included a tour of the Heaven Temple and surrounding gardens. It's a group of religious buildings where the emperors would come to pray for a good harvest during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The roof of the temple is blue because the color is symbolic of the sky and the gods.

This is the Heaven Temple.

The temples are all built of wood and painted bright beautiful designs.

Some of you may have noticed on vacations around the US/world that a lot of Asian people have nice cameras and take pictures of everything! Well my tour guide was no different. She may not have been the one with the camera, but she was constantly asking me to take pictures of every building, door, window, painting, statue, etc. that we walked by. I finally conceded because I felt bad telling her no. So below is one of the many pictures I have posing with the random details of the palace! I know she meant well but I think most of her extra pictures will be deleted shortly. That being said she was so nice, very knowledgeable, and a true example of the Chinese hospitality toward tourists!

Hope you are as fascinated with the door handle as my tour guide! :)

One of the things that's hard to tell from my pictures is how big the area is surrounding the temple and how nice the gardens are that surround it. The elderly residents get a annual discounted pass to all the gardens in Beijing. As you walk through the gardens in the morning there are dance classes, exercise groups, and people reading all over. With the crowding and noise of the city it is a nice place to get some respite from it all. Below is a picture of a picture looking over the Heaven Temple and surrounding gardens.