The Summer Palace: Nothing but Blue Skies

Today we visited the Summer Palace on our quick venture through Beijing. Once again, our friend Alex let us in on this wonderful destination spot and told us to spend an entire day here. Assuming it was like any other temple or palace, Nick and I thought we would be able to get in, see the views and be out within a few hours. Let's just say that we were wrong. Below is map of the Summer Palace, which we were not made aware of prior to our arrival.

Starting at the Heralding Spring Pavillion, the view of this lake was mesmerizing. After walking over a small bridge, we were surrounded by lotus flowers. Oh, and the smog in Beijing is very real, have not seen a blue sky since we have arrived.

The next thing to catch our eye was the Tower of Buddhist Incense (aka the Buddhist Fragrance Tower on the map). You can see it off to the right in the photos above. Another amazing hilltop temple with a wonderful view of the lake below. Here we also met a fun group of tourists that wanted to take a photo with a couple good-looking, red-blooded Americans (or that is how we interpretted it). I had to get a picture of the ordeal for myself as this was the largest group we had taken photos with thus far (we have taken easily over 10 pictures with random people over our time here in China). Below are some photos of the Tower as well as a 360 video walking up to the top.

From atop the Tower of Buddhist Incense, we saw an interesting strip of land dividing the lake in two. So we hiked on down to check it out. Surrounded by water, lotus flowers, intricate bridges and traditional buildings along the way, we were beyond impressed by the landscapes.

At the end of the walkway, we noticed the 17 arch bridge. Onward we marched to our last stop at the Summer Palace. Again we were met with incredible architecture and structures both on the bridge and on the small island it led us to.

Beijing has done it again on our short stay here. Hope you have enjoyed our experience, next stop: Tokyo, Japan!