Summer Palace

A much more interesting venture than the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace essentially served as emperor's vacation home.  Built in the mid-1700s and merely 15km to the northwest of the Forbidden City, the property covers nearly 750 acres.  According to our tour guide, nearly every inch of the property was constructed by hand.   Roughly 2/3 of the land is now Kunming Lake, a lake dug by hand.  The dirt from that lake made the Longevity Hill where the tower stands that the Dragon Lady reportedly ruled from.

The Dragon Lady (Empress Cixi, born the year of the dragon on the Chinese calendar) was a cunning and charasmatic woman who people came to both admire and fear.  She was chosen as a concubine into the emperor's harem, improved her situation both through her education and singing to the emperor in the gardens.  Upon the emperor's death, she ousted his appointee and maneuvered to  make her son emperor.  Historians believe she ruled China for 47 years through her son.

Below, you will see a picture of a concrete boat.  This boat was the handiwork of the Dragon Lady.  She diverted the entire naval budget for a year into the construction of this boat and improvements to her Summer Palace.  The idea behind the boat being once China's enemies saw the boat and believed they had the ingenuity to make a cement boat float, this alone would cause them to reconsider any thoughts of an attack on China.  The boat is of course not floating.

The Summer Palace is perhaps the most intriguing tourist stop in Beijing.  Our guide was full of interesting stories about the place and you can't possibly see it all in one day.  Like other stops, the incredible detail and symbolism is present everywhere.  Just one example at the Summer Palace is the 728 meter corridor, the longest in China and I'd presume the world.  Every portion of it is painted with great detail, but of particular interest are the beams at the top of each section.  Every beam has a hand-painted unique outdoor scene, the scenes progressing from winter to autumn as you make your way down all 728 meters.

Notice the board in place along the floor of each entryway.  These are in
every door I saw of both the Forbidden City and Summer Palace.  They
are in place to keep out the devil, the devil is apparently very small and
doesn't have much of a vertical leap.  You are also supposed to step over
these boards left foot first.

None of this detail work is done the easy way.

Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill

The 728 meter corridor

A summer scene painted on a corridor beam.

Every beam of every interior of every structure here and
at the Forbidden City resembles those in this picture.

Kunming Lake from Longevity Hill

The importance of a building in China can be determined by how many
 figures are on the roof corners.  The more figures, the more important
the building is.  I believe the most a building can have is 11.

The concrete boat built to deter China's enemies.

LT, also born in a year of the dragon, preparing to board a dragon boat.

The 17-arch bridge.  The 17 is not significant, but 9 is.
There are 9 different sizes of arch, or 9 arches in either
direction from the center.  9 is the emperor's number.