Yihe Yuan, the summer palace of Cixi

10th June 2013. Beijing

A day of parks and gardens. Beihai in the morning, rush back to the hotel, get on the metro and ride off to Beigongment station and arrive at the North Palace Gate of the Summer Palace, the quirky large royal garden with its fabulous Kunming Lake and its Buddhist hill.

Built, destroyed, rebuilt and now enjoyed by the Beijingers as a lovely gigantic green lung.

We entered via the North Gate, and this involved climbing the Buddhist hill right off.  (Entry from the Eastern Gate circumvents this, I realised later)

It was a typical Beijing evening, with no sign of sun or sky, but what amazed me was the trees.  Whereever I looked, I saw them, large and green.  What oases these royal parks now are for the urban jungle that is Beijing. 

The North Gate

The Suzhou Market Street

We (my husband and I) went in without any pre-reading, hoping the boards would tell us where we were and what we were seeing, but it was only later that I realised that this was the Suzhou Market Street.  Suzhou is a city in eastern China, famous historically for its canals, gardens, and was a happening metro in centuries past. 

The story goes that the Emperor who first built this complex in the eighteenth century had a concubine from Suzhou. And she was sad as she missed her city, and so, as emperors are wont to do, he ordered the building of this street so his favourite concubine could feel at home, go shopping and be happy generally.  Oh by the way, supposedly the concubine was a Buddhist nun to begin with, and there's a temple somewhere for her to pray and live as well!

The first set of steps leading up to the Longevity Hill and the Four Great Regions

The complex is large and, though thousands mill around, it hardly feels crowded.

The Longevity Hill houses the complex called the Four Great Regions with Buddhist temples of Tibetan and Han origins.  From what I understood, buildings have been burned down, restored in parts, and a large scale restoration took place quite recently, so we were fortunate.

Another sttep of steps to get to the top of the hill

Above these steps is the "Hall of the Buddha confirming his Doctrine", and symbolises Mount Sumeru.  This was also burnt down in 1860 during the occupation by the Allied Forces and rebuilt by emperor Gunagxu, who if I'm not mistaken was Cixi's nephew.

As I caught my breath after climbing those stairs, I looked around at what is probably typical of Tibetan architecture?  Seemed different from the Qing and Ming stuff we had seen I felt.

Isnt that steep?!

Through the trees and the rocks we spied Tibetan pagodas,  lovely Chinese roofs and a whole host of buildings, which we did not go into, since like typical tourists we had just a few hours before rushing off elsewhere.

As we looked back, this was the large platform where you can see two sutra pillars and two lions, all that remain of a large temple complex that has not been rebuilt

From atop the hill, we had a lovely panoramic view of this part of the sprawl of Beijing.  On one side, (picture above)  in the foreground was a large platform on which a temple had stood, and in the distance were the trees that blocked out the city from view.  

On the other (picture below) was the Kunming lake.  Far off in the distance was the new city.

I wondered how the city looked in those early days of the gardens.   Large wooden mansions?  Hutongs with hand-drawn rickshaws?

And did those royals really climb this hill?!

Kunming lake with the seventeen arches bridge and the tortoise island in the middle....and modern Beijing in the distance.

And as we went to the other side I had my answer, the approach from the other side was a gentle undulating "path" that wound up the hillside, with trees and temples interspersed.

This is how the royalty probably came up the hill!

We probably took the service entrance!

The Tower of Buddhist Incense

As we descended this path, various roofs popped out most invitingly, but we did not have time to go an explore all of them.  It was past five in the evening, and closing time was just an hour away.  We still had the lake area to explore.

The Long Gallery, a rather long corridor, filled with lovely paintings and decorated with motifs

We came down to the living quarters area of the complex.  Each room had a name - Yiyun house, Yulang Tang and several more.

Empress Longyu, the mother of the last emperor spent a lot of time here, and I think signed the abdication papers also here.

Looks like she was not a favourite of the emperor, but was a favourite of Cixi the dowager and Regent.

Yulang Tang - the Hall of Jade Ripples, where Guangxu worked and carried out matters of state

Yiyun House (I think)

From the seventeen arch bridge.  As the skies darkened and the light faded, it really made for a pretty sight

The Longevity Hill complex seen from across the lake, from Nanhu Island

Nanhu Island is manmade and is shaped like a tortoise and houses the Guangrun Lingyu Ci temple.  Better known as the Temple of Timely Rains and Extensive Moisture!

The tortoise is again a symbol of Longevity, and looks like Cixi loved this island and the temple, her favourite starting point for visits.

We missed the marble boat built by Cixi using Navy funds if you please.  The story goes that she built herself a marble boat on the banks of the lake calling it naval development ha ha!

The Bronze Ox on the lake front.  Erected to stave off floods,

Joyrides on the lake reminded me of Ooty!

But this was definitely Chinese, a dragon boat, and the lake walkway in the distnace.

It was time to go, and we exited via the East Palace Gate, where we saw some more magnificent bronzes

The bronze dragons that are the symbol of royalty

The mythical Qilin, a good omen for the Chinese.  It has a dragon's head, lion's tail,  horns of a deer, and cattle hooves and the body is covered with scales. In legend, the Qilin/Kylin guards against destruction by fire.

The court area, which we should have come in by, but we were exiting by!

Stone of the God of Longevity

Confucius says "One who is benevolent enjoys longevity".

Cixi probably had not heard that saying, or misunderstood what benevolence meant!

We wandered out, back to the station and on to Guamao, where we caught a glimpse of a typical  evening  in Beijing, street dancing et al.