China III - Stone Boats and Hutongs

The afternoon of our first full day in China, our tour took us to the emperor's Summer Palace which is located about 10 miles from the center of Beijing. It is a series of buildings, gardens and pavilions surrounding a large artificial lake called Lake KunMing. The lake was dug by hand and once again, the leftover dirt was used to build an artificial mountain (well a hill, anyway). Supposedly the area and the presence of the lake made this a more bearable place to hang during the hot Beijing summers. Unfortunately, one of the things the Chinese didn't invent was air conditioning.

A statue of a "Kylin" a mythical beast which was supposed to represent good luck: located at the entrance to the Summer Palace.

One of the features we were told we were going to see was to be the "world's longest corridor". Well, it turns out it is really just a covered walkway about 1/2 mile long. It is, however, magnificently decorated.

"World's Longest Corridor"

One of the many, many buildings in the Summer Palace. Notice the workmen - all the Chinese National Monuments, as well as their cities were kept spotlessly clean.

Along one of the pathways we came upon a man practicing his calligraphy skills with a 3 foot long brush which he dipped in plain water and then proceeded to write on the pavement. Calligraphy has the status of an art form in China. Also, red sneakers seemed to be popular among the Summer Palace visitors that day.

A pavilion located on a small peninsula in KunMing lake

The "Tower of Buddhist Fragrance" and the artificial hill built from the material dug from the lake.

A beautiful ornate gateway near the "Buddhist Fragrance". The Chinese are very keen on gateways. The silly-looking red lantern on a stick which will occasionally show up in some of our other pictures was carried by our tour guide to ensure that we could always find him.

The Stone Boat

The Summer Palace was largely destroyed by fire in the 1880's. However, our old friend the Dowager Empress, AKA the Dragon Lady, liked the area so she had it rebuilt and made it her main hangout. The story goes that one day she decided that it would be cool to ride around Lake KunMing on a boat. A suitable craft was procured but when she took her first boat ride she found to her dismay that boats have a habit of moving up and down and side to side. This did not set well with her tummy. Sooo... She commanded her minions to build her a boat that did not move and the result was the stone boat we see above, firmly embedded to the lake bottom. She would often spend hours on this - essentially artificial island - enjoying boating without all the inconvenience. Note the carved paddlewheels on the side.

After seeing and duly photographing the Stone Boat, and buying some souvenirs, it was time to move on.

Next on our agenda was a tour by "rickshaw" (actually pedicabs) of something called a "Hutong". Hutongs were and are the old traditional neighborhoods of Beijing, they have streets which are narrow alleyways, too narrow for automobile traffic (in fact the alleys are also referred to as Hutongs). They are formed of traditional-style one or two story residences which surround an inner courtyard and usually house an extended family. Most of these neighborhoods are long gone, replaced by wide streets and high-rises, but a few of them have been kept in an effort at historic preservation.

Our tour group sets off through the Hutong

Our tour was via pedicab and we were taken to a traditional indoor market which consisted of a series of stalls run by independent vendors selling meat, seafood, produce, spices etc. We also were shown a traditional courtyard home (complete with ghost-proof high thresholds). The funniest thing were the street vendors on bicycles who kept pace with our pedicabs trying to sell us souvenirs. Well, this tour wrapped up after about an hour or so, and it was back to the hotel, a quick dinner, and bed.

Next: Climbing the walls