Sharon's Summer Palace Photos

Welcome to Sharon's photos of the Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was the residence of the Emperess ChiXi (TsiChi), who reigned until 1908. She did a lot for the country,
but near the end, she started spending all the money on this palace. She spent all the money set aside for the "Royal Navy",
and China later was defeated in two major sea battles soon after. She is called the "Dragon Lady", and not much liked by most Chinese.

Interestingly, her story was the first book on Chinese history that got me interested in Chinese culture.

Waiting in line at the entrance
ChiXi was a Buddist, she had this temple built on the hill above the Palace. Most of these buildings are under renovation for the 2008 Olympics. Below the temple and the Palace is the world's largest garden taken care of full time. The wall at the lake's edge is the longest garden walkway, over one mile along the lake: from the entrance to the Jade bridge.
Looking across the mostly empty lake to a small temple at the end of the 17 bowed bridge
A tea pavillion on the edge of the lake
Entry to the main palace area
Entry to the bed chamber area
Famous marble boat, that does float. Used as a tea house originally. The cost for this is what started the subjects dismay at the amount spent.
A large, ornate gate to the marble boat dock
Another temple on the grounds
The jade bridge

Beijing	Forbidden City	Great Wall	Peking Opera	Summer Palace	Tiennamen Square
Shanghai		Shanghai Acrobats	Shanghai Bund	Yuyang Garden
Xian	Big Goose Pagoda	City Wall	Shaanxi Museum	Tang Dynasty Show	Terra Cotta Warriors