The Summer Palace (颐和园)

There weren't many female that appeared in China history. When they did, it always marked a significant historic consequences. The 1st and only one female ruler in China history was more than 1000 years ago - Empress Wu-Ze-Tian. However, she put herself the target of attack for daring enough to crown herself ruler despite the Patriarchal society at that time. Towards the end of Qing's Dynasty, another female empress made her way to the peak of ruling power. She however did not crown herself as ruler, but instead used her young son as a puppet king to deliver her order - Empress Ci-Xi （慈禧太后）.

During her reign, the declining dynasty was further tarnished due to her luxurious life that resulted in foreign invasion and division of concession. The Summer Palace was built by Emperor Qian-Long but burnt down by allied army(八国联军) during their invasion on China. She rebuilt the place after the allied claimed compensation from Qing's government although at that time, Qing's government financial status was rather embarrassing. In simple words, the summer palace was a private theme park for Empress Ci-Xi to spend her time there during the summer.

It was always known that SuZhou has one of the best scenery in the world. In order to enjoy the great scenery of SuZhou, they actually rebuilt SuZhou in this place!!! 

Whenever she wanted to visit the SuZhou Street, her servant will dress as owner of all these shops, selling stuffs obtained from SuZhou. She will then "shop" there~ History marked her as an empress who love disguising and role play~

A conceptual building from the book "Journey to the West"(西游记) 

The long corridor stretches 728m long.....with drawings on the beam depicting different stories.

Whenever she visited the long corridor, her servants would be telling her stories from all these drawings one by one.

The bankrupt stone. This huge stone was initially bought by a freak who love special stones. However, on his way of transporting it back to his home, due to long journey and the huge size, he finished all of his money and was forced to abandoned it halfway. Many centuries later, Emperor Qian-Long spend a vast amount of fortune before successfully transported it here~ hence the name bankrupt stone(败家石)

This high railing was used for hanging lantern especially at night when Empress Ci-Xi wanted to cruise the lake

This was the lake where she love to cruise at night, always dress up as different role~ Really a cosplay fella~ =P

Her son Emperor Tong-Zhi died at very young age, she then crown her young nephew Emperor Guang-Xu to continue her puppet controlling policy~ However, when Emperor Guang-Xu grown up, he wanted to put an end to his aunt's control and decided to launch a coup to reclaim his rightful throne. However, he failed and then spend the remaining of his days locked up in this yard~

Quite a beautiful yard, but imagine spending 10years in this limited space with no freedom and dignity~ 

佛香阁(The Buddhist Tower)...another must visit in the summer palace.

From top you can view the whole of the area

Levels and levels of stairs~ Imagine how high was the tower built on~

Finally reach the bottom~

Marble Boat....The name was a misnomer, just a static building which resemble a boat.

Really a very beautiful place...but too big~ very tiring after you attempted to tour the whole area within 1 day~

Ah ha! We went to BeiJing University for a tour.....just for fun~ 

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13 Tomb (十三陵)

After Emperor Zhu-Di (朱棣) seized the throne from his nephew, he shifted the capital of Ming's Dynasty from NanJing to BeiJing. The subsequent 12 emperors' of Ming's Dynasty hence ruled and died there~ Their bodies were buried in the Royal Cemetery known as the 13 Tomb. The one we visited was the only mausoleum being unearth and open for visitors. Ding's Mausoleum (定陵) belongs to Emperor Wan-Li （万历帝） which was among the most spendthrift and cruel emperor in Ming's history. According to records, Wan-Li love alcohol and would whack his servant to death every time he was drunk~ Kinda crazy eh?~

 

The full plan of Ding's Mausoleum 

It was a thirty minutes journey from the great wall...but make sure you board the right bus......

The architecture was similar to the Mausoleum of Zhu-Yuan-Zhang

When the archeologist tried to find the entrance into the underground palace about 50 years ago, they found multiple Written tiles saying the palace was just right below how many foot, how thick is the wall...... just to confuse tomb raider~ This is one of the failed attempt~

Need to scan your belonging before going down the palace~

Kinda deep, definitely more than 6 feet underground~

Door made of Jed 

When they open up the Mausoleum, alot of artifact oxidized and spoilt, leaving behind an empty chamber

Kinda impressive for them to built such an underground palace so deep down~

Some of the things that will not get oxidized~

The left chamber was still un-open~

We are inside a Royal Mausoleum~

The original Metal Door

Thats how the archeologist break open the Mausoleum

This is the site where the real instruction for the tomb entrance was found, they called it the "Guiding Slab"

The original slab was now kept in the museum~

Picture from the museum on the original digging process back then

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Great Wall of China (长城)

There was a saying that goes :"If you never been to the great wall, then you are no hero"(不到长城非好汉), quote the former president of China Mr. Mao-Ze-Dong(毛泽东). The great wall was built long time ago by the ruler of different countries during the Zhou's Dynasty to resist foreign invasion. At the end of Zhou's Dynasty, there were 7 strongest countries that manage to survive the civil war. In the end, Qin manage to wipe out all 6 other countries and the first emperor of China Shih-Huang-Ti united China for the first time under one central ruler. Aware of the North barbarian's invasion, he decided to complete the great wall by attaching the gap between the former walls built by different rulers of different countries.

We took the MRT to Ji-Shui-Tan(积水潭) station and took a 15 minutes walk to reach this old city gate (De-Sheng-Men 德胜门)built by the emperor of Qing's Dynasty. There will be an express bus directly reaching Ba-Da-Ling Great Wall (八达岭长城) - the most well preserved part of the wall~ Remember never accept any "help" from drivers that offer to drive you there. They are all fraud.

Built almost 200 years ago~

You can choose to either climb it all the way from first watch tower  up till the exit, or you can take this pulley car reaching the 4th tower. Guess thats why they called it the bear park(狗熊) - which means chicken in metaphorical sense~

Quite alot of people queuing up for the pulley car~

4 against 1~ so decided to take pulley car to 4th tower~

Next time I would try walking all the way up~ =P

Look at how magnificent it is!

Downside of it? Too many people~

Great engineering..... wonder we would ever make this even with modern technologies

Sigh...can't even move your butt in such narrow and crowded space~

 

You could even take the cable car to reach the top most tower~~~ We climbed to the top of course~ha!

After the top most station(8th tower), it started to get steeper and much more difficult to walk~

Look at the slope~ Most of the time you have to stoop low in order to maintain your centre of gravity

Good thing about it, people seldom walk down these slopes~ ha! Most just turn back after they reached the top most tower~

Another tips, if you wish to finish the whole journey, it might take few hours. So, prepare your lunch beforehand~ We bought some pancakes~

Really love to act aint him?~

So in the end, we turn one circle to the exit~