Summer Palace

On the second day of the Beijing tour for Mamu and Lolo, we went to the Summer Palace. It's Chinese name is YiHeYuan which means Garden of Nurtured Harmony and is the summer residence of the imperial rulers. The main parts include Longevity Hall, Kunming Lake and the Tower of Buddhist Fragrance. It was a good two hour leisurely walk for all of us as we totally enjoyed the different sights within the park.

The Bat is a symbol of luck, longevity and prosperity. The bat is used extensively in the design here. There are 9 because 9 is a symbol of power and is used exclusively by the emperors.

Trivia: Is this a Male or Female Lion? Answer: Male. The Lion playing with a ball is male and the one with a cub is a Female Lion. Now you know...

The Female Lion below plays with a cub in its paw .

The roof has these characters at the corners. The more characters, the more important the building. There are 7 here and there are 11 in the Forbidden City.

View from inside the Tower of the Buddhist Fragrance.

He makes these clay dolls on stick while you wait. Each piece is designed and molded from scratch. Wow!

300 year old tree. The Empress had this cut at the top bec it was starting to look like a dragon. She wanted it to look like the tail of a Phoenix, which is the symbol of the Empress, hence the unique cut.

Stone of Bankruptcy. The cost to transport this piece of stone was outrageous and expensive. Plus it couldn't fit the gate of the courtyard so they had to tear it down and rebuild a new one just to bring this inside.