This is from a few days ago, actually, but was pretty interesting.
Some car managed to end up touching this bus near our apartment, and traffic was snarled up pretty bad.
The amusing thing is that neither vehicle was even -remotely- damaged, but they all sit here waiting for the police to arrive, who usually just yell at them and make them move.
Okay, to the Summer Palace. Here's the entrance way. The ticket sign is quite complicated, but we figured out what we wanted to do, and got the tickets.
There's a huge plaza in which to wander around before you enter, and people will try to sell you all sorts of things.
Here are Samantha, Alex, and Joel having fun with cameras. Poor Alex didn't manage to get a camera before she came!
Many of these buildings were destroyed during various opium and colonial wars with European powers, but have been meticulously restored.
Rawr! Scary chinese lion dragon thingie. Rawr!
The tour books warn about the hordes on the weekend, and they're not incorrect. However, the crowds were never really that annoying.
So many of these compounds are extremely well divided, and you spend a lot of time walking through courtyards and gateways.
This very important rock is called the Stone of the God of Longevity. Because it resembles the God of Longevity. Really!
This is scary lion dragon thingie number 2. Rawr!
You see the locals spend enormous amounts of energy trying to keep cool and out of the sun (most of them loathe the thought of any sort of tanning).
This is some art gallery thing or something you can pay a bit extra to get into see. We decided to skip this time.
It's a beautifully maintained campus around which to walk.
Oooh, cool pavillion you can enter! It's called the Hall of Jade Ripples.
It was originally built in the 1750s, burned down by the Brits and French in 1860, and rebuilt in the 1880s. So, neener, neener!
There's lots of beautiful artwork around here that's quite nice to see.
Back out, we got a bit closer to the lake.
There was this dude writing calligraphy. But instead of using ink, he was just using water. The ground is so dusty that it works quite well!
Can't really read it for beans though. Gimme a couple of years.
Every once in a while, you find some locals who are thrilled by western girls. This lady wanted to have her daughter's picture taken with Alex and Samantha.
Our first look out onto the lake shows the huge main palace/temple compound a bit out from where we were.
The lake itself is quite pleasant, and the picture quite clearly shows how monstrously humid it was out today. Yegads! You can't even stand around without sweating like a pig.
You can rent boats and padddle around the lake for 30元 (~4$) an hour.
Looks like fun!
Or you can hang around in the shade and enjoy a nice picnic!
This was cracking me up. these two chicks were getting all "supermodel" out there.
Strike a pose!
Family portrait time! Little Wang on the right might wanna lay off the ice cream for a couple of years.
There appears to be no risk of running out of paddle boats. Awright!
The lotuses and lilllies you see here in China are simply spectacular, and tower over anything I've seen before.
Too bad this didn't turn out better. Joel was hamming it up for us.
The bigger boats are ferries that take you to the little "island" in the middle of the lake. On that island are some bridges very worth seeing.
This place has a labyrinth of walkways and passages you navigate to get from A to B.
Turtle! He's probably the only person here who's not stupidly hot!
Another huge rock. I forgot to read which important thing this was supposed to be.
Alex!
Local girl posing!
Weird bambi-thing.
Weird crane thing.
Cute girl with digital camera.
That's the island in the distance there.
And the bridge of sixteen or seventeen arches or something like that. Yep, it's seventeen, and 150m long. Wooo. With 544 lions on it.
Another cute little area with bridges, stone walls, and little pond with lillies...
...and some local lady giving herself a bath in the little pond with lillies... go figure.
Looking up the hill at the palaces and stuph.
Glorious gate in front of the main palace/hall/pavilion complex. It's called the "Jade-like firmament in Bright Clouds".
No, no, no! All wrong! Your OTHER left!!
Entrance to the huge complex in the middle of the compound, which houses the second palace, the Gate the Dispels the Clouds, the Hall that Dispels the Clouds, and the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha.
That, waaaay up top, is the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha.
This is the first door you go through after passing through the entrance area (which is also the Gate that Dispels teh Clouds).
I absolutely love the colour of this little girls sunbrella. In the heat here, these things totally make sense.
Samantha finding something funny .....
Maybe this lady's hairpiece?
Prettiest lilly/lotus cluster I've seen in a while.
Looking around the first courtyard before entering the Hall That Dispels the Clouds.
Some people were suggesting that the renovated places have a bit of a cheesy look and feel about them, but I actually kind of like it. One can imagine this stuff really in use 300+ years ago.
Inside of the Hall that Dispels the Clouds.
Here we are resting out of the sun for a few seconds sacar'ing fotografias.
Hey, those stairs up look promising.
The shorter flight of stairs.
The muuuch longer flight of stairs.
Traffic jam!
Looking up towards the Hall of Virtuous Glories (you can't make these names up!)
All of the roofs have dragons on them, and the more dragons you gots, the more importants you is.
"holy crap, mom, it's a huge group of foreign folks!" ... "don't worry honey, they're probably more scared of us than we are of them".
Views out to the island.
Every beam is decorated with this much detail!
Looking back at the cool stairwell we used.
We next decided to head down the stairs that would take us to The Bronze Pavilion.
I think it's called that because it's made entirely 100% out of Bronze. Probably don't want to touch that in today's heat.
Here is another gate.
With another tourist posing in front of it.
Here, practice your Hanzi if you're so inclined.
Hey, down in front Joel!
Looking back up at the Tower of the Fragrance of the Budda. Sadly, this is as close as we were going to get. It was closed for renovation and construction !!
The Bronze Pavilion was built in the 1750s, and was never destroyed by the French and Brits, but was looted a number of times. Whoops! Still, it's aparantly quite scientifically relevant to have a nearly 300 year old bronze structure standing around.
More Dragons!
Look, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... it's ... alex!
So close, yet so far away ....
We then retired for our healthy "lunch" and just sat and cooled down for a while.
We then proceeded to wander around some more and explore those parts of the main complex not yet seen.
Here's a ferry to the island.
Another ferry dock.
A local student drawing one of the pagoda thingies.
Funny hat guy.
This is the Hall for Listening to Orioles. Except that when you get to the top, it's not a place for listening to orioles, but actually a restaurant.
A patio area shaped like a giant riverboat or something. w000t!!!1!
HOLY CRAP, these poor girls must be sweating by the gallon. My goodness, that's just cruel and unusual punishment.
We would gradually work our way back to the entrance area after a few hours of wandering.
We'll save the boats and the island for our next visit, perhaps when some friends come to visit (HINT HINT friends!)
Another fine, fine, Chinese monument.