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Friday, February 2, 2018

Summer Palace, Hutongs, and Wangfujing

Ctourus -- Tour of Tianjin, Chengde, and Beijing, China
Day 6 - Beijing - Chengdu, November 19, 2017

This is our final day in Beijing and almost the end of our tour. We will have to fly back to Chengdu this evening, spend the night there, and then fly back out to Beijing before our long flight home. It's a pain to be spending so many hours flying back and forth but there was nothing much we could do since our original plane tickets couldn't be changed. We had six days of wonderful time on this tour so far so we don't mind. 

Some cute statues along the road as we walked to the hotel restaurant for breakfast in the morning.

The restaurant was quite crowded that morning but we found enough space for us all in the side room.

Checking out of the hotel after breakfast.

Busy traffic in the morning.

IBM building...

which supposedly represents a dragon.

I don't remember if we did anything before lunch, but the next batch of photos that I have are the ones taken at our lunch place. This is probably not a popular restaurant for western tourists but possibly among Chinese visitors since this has a more nostalgic feel of the Mao period. Xiangyang means 'facing the sun' and sun represents Mao Tse Tung during the Cultural Revolution period. This restaurant is in the Haidian district, near the summer palace and Yuanmingyuan Park.
Gate at the entrance of the restaurant


Part of the open-kitchen as we entered the restaurant.

There is a stage right in the front, not sure if they have performances here at the "People's Theater".

One of the many 'quotes of Mao' posted on the wall.


Festive and traditional decorations.

Summer Palace (Yiheyuan 頤和園)
This is a UNESCO Heritage site and a major tourist attraction in Beijing. It was the lakeside retreat for the royal family and it is a masterpiece of gardens, lakes and palaces located in the northwest of Beijing city. Most organized tours will visit the Front Hill area. DIY tourists who take the subway here would get off from the station at the entrance at Back Hill, which we still have not had a chance to see. I am sure it would be a magnificent sight looking down at the palace from up there.

We entered the palace from the East Gate and there didn't seem to have too many tourists that day. The first stop was a view of the man-made Kunming Lake.

Kunming Lake with the Tower of Buddha Incense in the far distance.

The lake was a little 'bare' at this time of the year.

Following our tour guide Mr. Yang.

Hall of Jade Billows (Yulantang玉瀾堂) was the living quarters of the emperors. Emperor Guangxu (光緒) was once confined here by Empress Cixi (慈禧). 

The two buildings stand side by side of Yulantang. Xiafenshi (霞芬室) on the right,

and Wanxiangxie (萬香榭) on the left.

Taihu rocks in the center courtyard.

Behind the Hall of Jade Billow is the EngfengChangshan.


Yiyun Hall, the living quarters of Empress Longyu (隆裕), a niece of Cixi, and the queen of Quangxu. It used to be a library in the Qianlong era.


Hall of Joy and Longevity, Empress Dowager Cixi's living quarters.

One of the bronze sculptures in front of the hall. Cranes represent longevity.

Entering the Long Corridor. From here our guide let us free to spend our time before meeting back up at a set time.

Look up at the detailed paintings all around the Long Corridor, also know as the Summer Palace Gallery.

Absolutely beautiful! These paintings include famous places in China, and scenes from Chinese mythology and folktales, the 24-Filial Exemplars and the Four Great Classical Novels.

This IS a long corridor.


Looking up at the Paiyun Hall and the Tower of Buddha Incense from Paiyun Gate.

 People getting in the palace through the Back Hill would be walking down from there.

This marble copy of the Stone Boat was to replace the original wooden boat that was burnt in 1860. It is 96 meters long with western style paddle wheels.

After the Stone Boat, we turned around and walked back to the front following the beautiful walkway along the lake.




Looking back at the Royal Boat Dock.

Now we are back at the starting point, Hall of Benevolence and Longevity (仁壽殿), where court sessions were held.



Hutong Tour on Pedicabs
We have never done a pedicab (trishaw) tour of the old hutongs in Beijing. Which turned out to be quite interesting. I think this is a very popular activity with western tourists. Our guide had made arrangements for us to take a short ride on these trishaws just for the experience. We were prepared to tip our driver but Mr. Yang told us that he would handle that at the end. Riding through the old Beijing area was quite different. These houses in the hutongs are jam packed places and we were told that they will be torn down to make ways for new development.

Well-covered on the pedicab.

We had a nice chat with the driver who came to Beijing in search of a better life from the village.




Back on the bus but still in the hutong area.


Long line at a famous store selling roasted chestnuts.

These meal-delivering service are very popular in China.

Wangfujing Shopping Street
Wangfujing is a pedestrian shopping street for both tourists and locals. This would be our last stop here in Beijing. We had some free time here  and then meet back at a restaurant close by for dinner before heading out to the airport for our flight back to Chengdu. 

St. Joseph's Wangfujing Church or Dongtang is one of the four historic Catholic churches in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing. This is at the north end of the pedestrian street.

Walking towards the south end.

Getting busier as we walked near the Snack Alley at the south end.

You can get some very unusual 'snacks' here.

Dare to try some? Still wriggling!

There are many name-brand stores and restaurants here also.

Beijing Department Store

Back to our meeting place, a hot pot restaurant inside this hotel.


Hot pot, great for a cold evening.



After the wonderful hot pot dinner, we were taken to the Beijing International Airport for a late flight back to Chengdu. We were definitely very tired by the time we arrived Chengdu. We were picked up by the same young man who met us on our first trip here six days ago. This time we were dropped off at a hotel near the airport. Tomorrow we will leave this city again for our flights home.

Airport Jiangou Hotel, Chengdu
Another good, functional hotel for the night. Not too busy and it seemed to be not that close to the airport. It worked for us because they do have shuttles to transport customers to the airport.








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