The Summer Palace

After lunch , we continued to the Summer Palace, the largest and best preserved of imperial palace gardens. During the hot and humid summer days the Emperor, his Ministers and family would travel from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace.

 Entrance to the Summer Palace

Candy's niece, her father on the shores of Lake Kunming with spring blossoms. 

 The Palace Gardens cover 2.9 sq. kilometers with 70 percent of this area being the lake. During construction the lake was completely dug by hand using an army of 100,000 men.

 An ornately painted Long Corridor stretched along the shore line, it had a wonderful cool breeze off the lake on hot summer days.

 Many lake boats were transporting visitors around the lake. Also available were small paddle boats.

 The Dowager with great control over her son the Emperor had this full size boat built completely in marble. At one point when the lake flooded it didn't float!  

 Paddle boats on the lake.

We crossed the lake on one of the larger passenger ferries, landing at a different gate then we had entered at.

Before dinner we attended the amazing Beijing Acrobatic Show.

Dinner this evening was at a restaurant near our hotel. Our meal was shared with Candy and her family, before we headed back to our hotel after a fabulous day.