Beijing - Day 3 - Summer Palace
Today was a more restful day. I needed it after all the running around the last few days. My legs were dying from the great wall.
I spent the morning catching up with emails etc. Around midday I headed out to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is in the Northwestern section of Beijing. It is located on a tremendous lake and like other well designed buildings of the Emperor, it had the mountain supporting the Palace and the water in the facing. On the mountain above the palace was a great heavenly Buddhist temple. So despite my legs, I had to climb it.
Down by the water there were thousands of tourists in many different groups. I figured that if I went up the mountain there would be less and I was correct. The further up I got, the less people I saw. At the top, there is a Buddhist temple with a “Thousand Arms Buddha”. I found this interesting in that at the Forbidden City (built in the 1400’s), the entire place was based on a more Daoist approach. Buddhism did not enter into the picture. But here at the Summer Palace, built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong, it had a Buddhist temple. They had of course built it high up in the “heavens” to honor the Buddhist gods. The detail of the buildings here was very spectacular, using a lot of colors and intricate design.
The view from the mountain was very impressive, with the lake and the city in the background. Looking down you could see a traditional layout of the housing.
I made my way over to the other side of the hill, where there was almost no tourists. There was however another Buddhist temple, with statues of Shakyamuni and the various Bodhisattvas.
I made my way down to the bottom, where there was a cute village situated on a waterway. I am not sure what the significance was, but here is a photo.
After having a bite to eat and struggling to get a taxi driver who could find my way back to the hotel, I managed to get home. I then met up with the group from Los Angeles, later that evening. They had just arrived and had taken a day tour of the city by bus.
Master Sang and Salina (Master Sang’s wife) returned to great the group. We then were taken to a very nice and traditional Beijing restaurant, known for their rice noodles. It was fun seeing the group after not really having English conversation for several days. The group was truly mulitnational, with students from Dubai, Mexico, Japan, and the US.
After dinner, we got to have a driving tour of the city and see the lights and nightlife. We just drove and returned to the hotel as the class begins tomorrow. We were all ready for some rest and a the next few days of learning.
