The Summer Palace consists of a very big park containing a large lake and many decorated pavilions. The current palace buildings were made for the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1888 after the original ones were destroyed by British and French troops. This area is a short bike ride from Beida and a very pleasant place to spend a morning. We went there twice with Baojue. On the first vist we walked to the far end of the lake, returning via a dyke connected by six stone bridges. On the second visit we went to Suzhou Street - a re-creation of the scenery of Suzhou - and the up the hill to the 'Cloud Dispelling Hall'

The decorated archway	Great Stage
Opera figure	Tower of the fragrance of Buddha
Stone boat in lake Kunming
Pen drawing by teacher at Xi'an school of painting	Painting by a student from Xi'an school
Another painting from Xi'an school	Details of paintings on the long gallery
Testing the ice	Third stone bridge in the west dyke ­ Jade Belt bridge.
	On the third stone bridge
The bridge with 17 arches	The bronze ox engraved with poetry written by the emperor
Second visit to the Summer Palace
Stone bridge in the garden of harmonious pleasure	Suzhou Street
Bridge across the lake in Suzhou Street	On the bridge
Shopkeeper	Shops by the bridge
Small bridge in Suzhou Street
	Roofs on Wanshou Hill
View of the lake	Strolling-through-a-picture pavilion
Coming down the hill to the lake