The lake at the Summer Palace (above and below pictures)
Beijing blew me away.
The bitter, wintry weather seemed to drain all the colour out of the landscape. All that was left was a wash of dull grays and browns. It was surprisingly, wonderfully romantic though?! The thousands of closely-packed tree skeletons lining the wide streets and ring road, the wonderfully sharp, nostalgic familiarity of China. The fresh bite of the air was startling and invigorating.
We stayed at The Westin on Finanical Street, the plushest room I’ve had to date – drooling all over the modern interior design, the electric wooden blinds, and the free fresh, filtered coffee in the room. The buffet breakfast was luscious, arggg gurgle. I took a sort of day tour with a few of the crew, something I would normally scoff at and refuse to take part in – but I had a really great time, despite the fact I was shuffling around in a van with a guide called Jenny (every third girl in China brands herself as a Jenny for the conversational English part of her life).
In short, myself, Jenny, two Tunisians girls and our Italian first officer got around to a few government tourist spots that gave free introductions to pearls, and tea, respectively. I think these places were probably set up for the throes of tourists that came through the city in August, the idea is to provide some generous cultural awareness and then (not so) subtly try and hawk their goods with large numbers of salespeople. Most of the day though, was spent seeing the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall (walking up and taking a taboggan contraption back down), the Olympic Stadiums (Water Cube and Bird’s Nest), and the Summer Palace.
The Water Cube
The palace itself bored me, but oh wow, did I fall in love with the lake, with the horizon! It was gorgeous! The lake was half-frozen, it was late afternoon when we were walking around the bridge section. People were ice skating on the lake..!! They were training – three of them had carved out a large, faint circle and were following it around and around in perfect unison, it was lovely to watch. I even saw one ramdom guy just walking very nonchalantly across the lake’s width – and he was smoking! Ha ha ha!! It was drained of colour there too, but it just made the scene all the more beautiful. I guess it’s a little silly, but I was so excited and totally gleeful to be walking on the lake! I’d never seen anything like it – only crappy little overcrowded lakes in movies, probably in New York or Paris or somewhere like that. This however, was completely unexpected, and so probably why I rate it so highly.
Bridge at the Summer Palace
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