Lesson learned the hard way: Pack and dress for the weather. Andrew was seriously the only person in Beijing on Thursday who wore shorts (everyone kept staring at his legs!). It was cold and windy. But this all worked to our advantage as we zipped through the Summer Palace - pausing to enjoy the many beautiful spots before rushing to the next, racing to see everything before closing time and before we got hypothermia.
The Summer Palace - aka Gardens of Nurtured Harmony - first came to be in 1750 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. In 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List and declared it "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design (thanks again, Wikipedia).
Walking through the various serene garden paths, gates, bridges, temples and up and down the rocky steps and hills - and yes, the souvenir shops - I agree with UNESCO's assessment.
At one point, we arrived at an open pond area - with a walkway around it. As we stood by the edge of the Chinese-style gazebo, looking at the late afternoon sun shining on the lightly swaying willow tree and the water lilies, we forgot the cold for a second... but just a second.
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