THE SUMMER PALACE

Today we decided to head to the Summer Palace. It was only a 20 minute bus ride to one of the most fantastic places in China. CJ had not been here yet so it was a great day for us.
The Summer Palace is along the Kunming Lake and has many wonderful sites to see.

We had barely arrived and a group of Chinese people said something to CJ in Chinese and handed him this baby (in those funny buttless pants). They wanted to take a picture of them together. The baby took one look at CJ and started crying! They tried everything to get him to get his picture taken but he wasn't going for it. They took a group picture of all of us with someone else holding him.



About a half hour later we ran into them again. This time the little boy wasn't as upset and smiled and then waived and said "bye bye".



The entrance to the Summer Palace







This is the TOWER OF THE FRAGRANCE OF THE BUDDHA
Notice the building on the right. We walked all the way up there!!




This is the LONG CORRIDOR
It is about 700 yards long. All the artwork on the ceilings are hand painted and all different.











The 17 ARCH BRIDGE



More scenes along the LONG CORRIDOR


















The entrance to the TOWER OF THE FRAGRANCE OF THE BUDDAH



Working our way to the top.










Climbing the steps.





Looking out over the rooftops. No, not there yet!!



Inside the building.



This is the Buddha.







Still climbing.





No, not yet!!






Still more steps!!!
















ALMOST!!!





We made it!! This is as far as they let you go. What a site from up here!!! Going down was a lot easier too.





You can take rides along the lake on these boats.





The Marble Boat