{ Set them free.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

{ freed on 13:50

DAY THREE: SUMMER PALACE & BIRD'S NEST

this is the summer palace, as the name applies..the emperor goes there only during the summer time..this place is huge..dad and me spent almost 4 hours climbing up and down the hill..fancy perspiring in winter!!

this is one of the many gardens inside the palace..built with many pavilions just for the emperor to enjoy scenary and spend time with his concubines..

longevity temple..built for Ci Xi to make prayer when she's at the summer palace..constructed at the top of the hill..imagine how the people carry the logs and bricks and all up the hill..tiring task..but then again..after hundreds of years..the buildings are still standing firm..

my conclusion..olden days cement and paint are much better than today's..today's concrete start to spall and paint start to tear after 2-3yrs..nippon paint is lousy!!

from the top of the hill taken down..this is the passage to climb in order to arrive at the longevity temple..thin have to walk up 3-4 pavilions..pity the people who have to carry Ci Xi on a sedan chair uphill..

at the far end is a man made lake..kunming lake..enormous!!

upclose of the kunming lake..after seeing this..i can't help to think that china people like to waste resources..dig such a big hole..and have to find so much water to flood the hole to make a lake..for what? for the emperor to row boat..

this boat is a total white elephant..Ci Xi ordered this boat to be made just for her viewing..guess what it is made of..white jade..extravagant..if she only used the money to help the people..

welcome to Suzhou lane..well well..our dearest Ci Xi is too lazy to travel to suzhou from beijing..so she ordered to have a replica of suzhou constructed in the premise of the summer palace..so that she can see how pretty suzhou is..

dad and me had a meal in suzhou lane..eating at a small tavern...like those seen in chinese sword fighting shows..

yeah!! me and dad.. :) took many such big head photos on this trip..well no one to help us take photo...

part of the kunming lake..and the far end..there is this bridge consisting of 17 arches...

from the pictures..it's hard to picture how huge and enormous the summer palace is..until you seen it..so big that we got lost inside..so many pavilions and gardens...

looks familiar?? yups!! the bird's nest stadium...

and...the cube...

(xuan..your phelps swam in there!)

while taking this photo shot..i had a good laugh..

there were this 2 china people who wanted to take a pose something like mine..running motion..but the woman kinda don't understand that photos are static..so she kept swinging her arms like she's running...and her friend can't take the photo and had to tell her to stop..she did it twice in fact..while she swings her arms non-stop, the man beside her was already in place and posing...a funny moment..

well maybe abit hard for your to understand and imagine what i am trying to describe..hmm..

Gui Jie..ghost lane
this street is lit with many red lanterns..don't ask me why it's called gui jie..just some tourist gimmick...we had dinner there..yummy..in fact all our dinners were the best meal of the day because dad and i don't take our breakfast and probably just buy some snack to share along the way..so daily we have one and half meal only..

this place sells all sorts of weird meats..donkey..rabbit..goat..yucks..

and yah..on china's streets you wouldn't find any cats or dogs..should be able to guess why!! they have all been cooked and eaten..