Weekend Excursion: The Summer Palace

After a long second week of work, we hit the road and headed for The Summer Palace. Just off the Kunming River, this place could be its own city with hundreds of ancient structures on two square miles of land and water. It’s stunning, and very tranquil if you visit on a rainy day like we did. The palace’s Chinese name “颐和园” translates to “Garden for Preserving Harmony,” which captures the feeling of being here. I’ll let my pictures down below do most of the talking, but I want to first share a few short stories from the trip:

I misheard our guide, who I thought said we would be walking for 20 minutes. We ended up hiking for three hours before getting to the palace! Thankfully, I have the best roommate who brought lots of snacks to share.
The trip began with a boat ride from our starting point to the outskirts of The Summer Palace territory. I get terribly motion sick, so I took some medication before boarding. Motion sickness meds usually make me sleepy, so I was expecting that, but I didn’t realize how hard it would hit in the afternoon. I was totally fine for our hike and exploration of the palace itself, but by the time we headed back for lunch, I could barely stay awake. I even fell asleep sitting up during our meal (with a backless chair, too). So embarrassing.
It rained for most of our journey and at one point got pretty windy, so I threw on my Yale sweatshirt with our Handsome Dan on the front. My roommate asked me why he was there, so I replied that he was our mascot. She nodded thoughtfully, then proceeded to ask if he was from Tom & Jerry. One of my favorite Beijing moments so far.