The Gerichs : China: The Summer Palace

Well, if you thought The Forbidden City was big, welcome to The Summer Palace...which was just that, a palace for the emperor, chosen concubines and some workers to travel to in the summer to escape the heat of The Forbidden City. It is FOUR times the size of the city, with 3/4 of it consisting of a 540 acre man made lake. It was built by one of the Emperors as a 60th birthday PRESENT for his mother. Talk about sucking up, right!? ;) It is absolutely gorgeous and no wonder they came every year just to get away from the concrete/wooden jungle with no trees that the city resembled. It is 260 years old and in that time has burnt down twice and been rebuilt. The first time it was built it took 12 long years.

There are three islands in Kunming Lake to represent the three Heavenly places; Longevity, Happiness and Wealth. A gigantic marble boat which symbolized stability for the dynasty, and no revolution sits in the water. The emperor is the boat, the people are the water and they tell him to do a good job or the dynasty will sink.

In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, and 3 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), went into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. This diversion of funds away from the military came just six years before the First Sino-Japanese War, which China lost. The palace was, in 1894, due to be the center of the celebrations of Cixi's sixtieth birthday, yet, the war with Japan forced her to cancel the elaborate plans. Let's talk about Cixi. Each night she was presented with a dinner consisting of 120 different dishes, and she drank breast milk from a wet nurse to give her mercy and longevity. Seriously pampered!

If I had to choose where to live, I would have picked the Summer Palace over the Forbidden City any day!