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Thursday, 31. May, 2001.As every morning, we met at school and then, full of energy, got on our air-conditioned bus to visit the Summer Palace in the northwest of the city. We had in fact a translater who really had a sound knowledge of German, but unfortunately he did not contribute much to make us acquainted with the history of the Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace actually is an enormous park with a lake, pagodas, arbours, pergolas and inner yards. We got inside through the north gate, which carries the inscription "Summer Palace". Behind it you find a row of shops with a small harbour that is supposed to remind you of the southern Chinese town Suzhou and which was erected between 1986 and 1990, taking a model from the late 19. century. In the meantime, however, a large number of souvenir shops have logded in there, which to a certain degree destroys the image of the peaceful idyll.
The former summer residence of the emperor's widow Cixi can be found on a hill and has been placed on that point to give you a wonderful panorama of Beijing. In order to get to the palace, we had to climb up several metres. Unfortunately our guide withheld the Summer Palace from us and immediately climbed down again with us. We went back along the shore of the Kunming Lake, an imposing covered walk that protected the empress from getting wet when it rained, and passing by Cixi's famous marble ship and further through beautifully arranged parks. The positive general impression was slightly desturbed by the large number of little shops near the exit where we, as often, were supposed to pass by in the end.
Despite the fact that some of us were disappointed that we had no chance to take a look at the buildings, we will keep the Summer Palace in mind as a large, beautiful park.
© Jennifer Kraft and Miriam Siebert, July 2001
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