Fri Aug 15 – The Summer Palace

We visited the Summer Palace which was a place for royalty to retreat to from the hot sweltering Beijing summers. It was built on a lake and housed royalty. Evidently most of the history surrounded one of the most powerful women in China’s history who started out as a concubine to the Emperor, but who rose to power because she was able to bear a son, which the other concubines could not. She was smart and cunning and figured out how to consolidate power in China, to the point of being able to “imprison” the emperor in a courtyard in this palace. Each important ruling party had their own “courtyard” with housing in the 4 surrounding courtyard buildings.

We left the Summer Palace and then visited the obligatory tourist shop – a government run silk store. They showed us how the worms are raised and the silk extracted, and then showed us many different items from silk that they had for sale, including blankets, pillow cases, sheets, etc. We looked but did not buy. Then we had lunch at a local typical Chinese restaurant. It was very good and we enjoyed our meal.