The Summer Palace

On my last day in Beijing I visited the Summer Palace. It's about 9 miles outside of the city center, nestled around Kunming Lake. This is the view across the lake at Longevity Hill, where most of the buildings are located.



And this is the reverse view, with the Beijing skyline in the background.



I was glad I waited for a sunny day to visit here. The colors and shadows were much more dramatic than the Forbidden City was on the dreary, rainy day I visited. There are hundreds of scenes like this painted under the eaves of the Long Corridor (that's what it's called).



From inside the corridor it's easy to see how it got its name. Perhaps in the near future they'll rename it So Full of Tourists You Can't Get Through Corridor.



Not all of it is fully restored, so you can see what it looked like before they prettied it up for tourists.