Summer Palace

	The drive back to Beijing was beautiful. The rugged mountains seem to spring straight up out of nowhere.
	Now we are in Beijing at the Summer Palace, also known as the Dowager Empress's Palace. It is said to be one of the most opulent of the later palaces. The original was burned down by the British, then rebuilt in the 1800s for the Dowager Empress Cixi. We also toured the Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City. These places are each immensely large sprawling complexes of many buildings, all highly ornamented. A good number of them are sporting beautiful fresh paint and new plantings, probably in honor of the Olympics.
	I wish we could have seen the inside, but the outside is fantastic enough! The Dowager Empress was quite a character! She deposed several emperors (who she put on the throne, one of which was her own son) and was the de facto ruler of China for about 40 years.
	Our Beijing guide said if we were to see everything in any one of the palaces or temples in Beijing, it would take several days. Our guides showed us the highlights, and gave us good information along the way. They really kept us moving, but sometimes I suspected the fast pace was also intended to keep us out of local souvenir shops. They preferred that we spend our money in the large state-sponsored tourist shops we visited. However, the souvenir shop prices were much better! At a small shop, I got Katy a pair of cloisonné earrings for 10 Yuan (about $1.50). The official "Cloisonné factory" we toured sold the very same earrings for 35 Yuan.
	The Beijing palaces are much bigger than the Mountain Retreat, and more ornate. There were many interesting things to see outside. Katy is standing in front of an enormous bronze lion of impeccable workmanship. These lions always appeared in pairs, male and female. The male rested his paw on a ball, and the female rested hers on a cub. The archway in the background and the bronze lion were built to resemble the temples in Chengde.
	Everywhere we looked there was another pavilion, portico, small house, or garden. The Dowager Empress was fabulously wealthy, and was carried on a palanquin wherever she wanted to go. By this point, that sounded like an excellent idea to me!
	The artistry, craftsmanship and quantity of the temple and palace furnishings was fantastic. There are so many historic bronze artifacts that some of them still sit outside, in their original positions.
	These are architectural details from the Summer Palace (Beijing). Everything was extremely ornately painted. I can't imagine the time it took!
	Sometimes the decorative effect was almost dizzying. This is the interior of the roof of a small pavilion along the lake. Anecdotal history says the Dowager Empress's son rebuilt this palace just for her, and specifically to get her out of the Forbidden City. She oversaw the decorating and details of the palace personally.
	The middle of the palace grounds features an immense man-made lake. The lake area is heavily used as a recreation area by the people of Beijing. Paddle boats are very popular. The "dock" at the palace is a life-size marble re-creation of a pleasure boat. It's not used for boats anymore, since some of the stonework is crumbling due to moisture.
	Modern Dragon Boats take visitors to and from an island in the middle of the lake. We didn't get to the island, but our boat took us across the lake to a spot near the place we came in, so we could get back on our busses.
	Katy was hanging out with the other flute players, so I got a shot of her as her boat pulled away. She had a great time! It was a growing experience for her, and she struck out on her own (with the tour, chaperoned, and with friends) a bit. It was also a bitter-sweet exercise for us in letting go a little bit. She's got to grow up sometime, I guess!
	Our days in Beijing were VERY full. We visited a jade "factory" where they carve and polish jade, a pearl merchant, cloisonné factory, and silk factory (we were also highly encouraged to buy from these emporiums.) Fortunately, I bought a piece of jade at the temple bazaar in Chengde -- the prices in Beijing were several times higher and they were less willing to bargain.