Today I woke up and ate my usual carb heavy breakfast as I knew we were going to the summer palace, which involves quite a bit of walking. We then boarded a bus and headed out to the palace and got there in about 20 or so minutes. After we walked through the usual band of people trying to sell cheep junk, and witnessing two street vendors arguing intensely, we headed in to the grounds of the palace. We began our tour with a large courtyard that branched off the main path to the summer palace that contained several very old pieces of history from paintings to pottery and other artworks. My personal favorite was of the jade room, where several pieces were on display with very intricate designs that undoubtedly took the artists’ months to create.
After exiting the courtyard, we continued onto the main section of the summer palace, whose center piece was a large lake which much of the palace buildings surrounded. We then toured the imperial bed area and courtyards before continuing on to the rest of the tour. We then headed down a very long corridor, reputed to be the longest in China, to our next stop of the tour. We entered a courtyard and began to walk up a long flight of stairs to a temple at the top of a large hill. At the apex of the hill was a really neat circular temple that contained a goddess with many hands, heads, and eyes. I cannot recall her name, but Vivienne claimed that because she sacrificed a limb to another person, and the gods were so moved by her kindness, that they blessed her with a thousand arms with eyes and heads. After descending from the temple, and taking a few more pictures, Dr. G rented us some paddle boats which we took out on the lake to look around and have some fun. We headed out and paddled underneath a bridge trying to catch the lead boat. Our boat was definitely the fastest, and had soon caught the lead boat. Devin decided it would be a good idea to have a naval battle with water bottles and paddle boats, so for the rest of the time, we spent scheming and maneuvering for revenge. After the boat wars concluded, we walked our wet selves over to the stone boat which, according to historical accounts took an entire year worth of the Chinese navy’s funding to build. After a brief period for pictures we headed through a beautiful forested area to a really cool shopping area located on a canal which offered much of the usual souvenirs, but non-the-less was a neat place for pictures and hanging out. This was the last place we visited in the summer palace before continuing on to a new area for lunch.
The rest of the day was primarily consumed by eating and sleeping as we got back from the summer palace. Dr. G hooked us up with lunch at a local hotpot spot where you make your own lunch after they bring out a giant plate piled high with lettuce and cabbage, an egg, tofu, mushrooms, carrots, and several other unidentifiable foods and some type of meat and pot of boiling liquid. I ordered the spicy version of the meal and had shrimp as my meat. I was a bit put off by the fact that much of the spice in the pot tasted strange but I was in for a surprise when they brought out whole raw shrimp. I ended up enjoying the meal overall, but wish that the spicy pot had fewer peppercorns.