The Summer Palace

By Sally Franz

Monday morning was pouring rain. But with my Lonely Planet Guidebook in hand we struck out for whatever adventures lay ahead. When I had visited China thirty years before, all travel was done with a communist guide who kept you on a very short tether. Not so the China of today. You are free to explore the amazing sites of Beijing on your own. First stop, the Forbidden City. Note to tourists: the Forbidden City is, um, forbidden on Mondays (closed). So we regrouped with the guidebook and headed back east to Nanchizi Dajie (Road) and walked south to the very wide Boulevard of Xichang’an Jie which divides the grounds of the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square. We easily found TIANANMEN EAST Subway Station on the [1] line.

The new plan was to jump the subway and go to Yihe Yuan or the Summer Palace. When using the subway ticket machine, first hit the button that says ENGLISH. Then enter the number of the last line you will be on; in this case the [8] line. Then select BEIGONGMEN station. Pay and grab your tickets. Ride 2 stops on the [1]. Exit, and start looking for signs for the [8] line north. It should say the last [8] line stop ANHEQIOA NORTH above the doors you get on. It is 15 stops until the Summer Palace.

The good news was the Golden Holiday was over, thus no crowds. The bad news was that by the time we got through the North Gate we were drenched. Fortunately they had souvenir shops aplenty and they were selling oversized hooded plastic ponchos. Once encased like a soggy sandwich in a Ziplock we crossed an enchanting bridge. It overlooked a manmade canal with restored shops and boathouses. Before us stood a formidable set of stairs. Once we scaled these, we realized that only got us to more stairs. The water was pouring so heavily down these smooth stone flights that we resembled salmon flinging ourselves up a grand cascade. Thankfully there are sturdy handrails all up this manmade mountain. (The dirt for the mountain came from the manmade lake the Summer Palace abuts. The palace was first built in 1749.)

At the top is the Buddhist Temple of the Sea of Wisdom. The first bit of wisdom might have been to try this on a drier day. Descending the opposite side of the mount is the grand Summer Palace with magnificent views of the Kunming Lake. All the way down the hill are covered corridors connecting the Buddhist Fragrance Hall and the Cloud Dispelling Hall (apparently broken that day because the clouds continued). Along the lake shore is what is called The Long Corridor. It is a 2,296 foot covered walkway that has been painstakingly restored with brilliant colors and on the beams above are 14,000 murals.

On a sunnier day you can take boat rides (April-October) on the lake. If you have time, be sure to see the large Marble Boat and on the west causeway the 17 arch bridge. All along the Long Corridor are side buildings with gardens and small art displays. Well worth the side trips. This is the advantage of not going with a tour group. You can explore every nook and cranny without worry of falling behind.

Now here is where we got a bit adventurous. Instead of climbing back up the Longevity Hill (with the Summer Palace on top) we decided our longevity might be in serious jeopardy if we hiked that again in the rain. So we opted for following the Long Corridor east. Turns out, unlike Disneyland where you enter near the Goofey parking lot and exit near the Goofey parking lot, at the Chinese parks of antiquity it is in one way, out the other. So without some serious vertical backtracking, we had to improvise. Our delightful stroll on a small northern portion of Kunming Lake dumped out at the East Gate, which was nowhere near our subway line. With a map in hand of the Summer Palace we figured out there was a perimeter wall. So logic prevailed that if we just walked the outer wall left (north and west) we would come to our subway station. Which we did. But as they say, “Don’t try this at home.” There were no sidewalks, there were large tour buses careening around corners and oh, yeah, torrential rains and puddles shin deep. But all’s well that ends well. We found the [8] line and were soon heading home to a hot shower and Peking Duck. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Sally Franz and her third husband live on the Olympic Peninsula. She has two daughters, a stepson, and three grandchildren. Sally is the author of several humor books including Scrambled Leggs: A Snarky Tale of Hospital Hooey and The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Menopause. She hosts a local radio humor segment, “Baby Boomer Humor with Sassy Sally”.