Beijing - Summer Palace and Jingshan Park

For our last day in Beijing, we decided to visit the Summer Palace. The day started off shaky, I stayed in bed too long, then we couldn't pay for our breakfast with a card and Stef went on a hunt for a working ATM. The latte I treated myself to wasn't really up to par - I felt sick the whole day. So I headed to the Summer Palace with little enthusiasm. And about 20,000 Chinese people... According to Lonely Planet, the walk around the artificially created lake should be "lonely" but recommended. Well, the writer was clearly never at the Summer Palace on a Saturday afternoon. But it was still beautiful! After going up and down on the Great Wall the day before (it was over 600 meters in elevation), we were looking forward to a leisurely stroll in the Summer Palace. Wrong! Probably to catch as much wind as possible, the palace is built on different levels on the hill - so there was quite a bit of stairs to climb. My calves suffered a bit...

In any case, there are two things to learn from the Chinese: they always carry their own thermos flask, in which they can brew fresh tea. Boiled, hot water is offered almost everywhere for free or for a small fee. Secondly, they always bring food with them. We had a few mandarins, bananas, and nuts with us, but that doesn't satisfy a big hunger, of course.

We couldn't give the Summer Palace the time it deserved: it is a truly beautiful palace with various pavilions, houses, temples, and of course the (almost gigantic) lake with boathouses, an artificial dam, and bridges. But at 4:30 p.m., they kick you out again - we were there for about 4.30 hours, which is not enough to walk around the lake.

After that, we went to Jingshan Park, right next to the Forbidden City. An acquaintance recommended this park to see the Forbidden City from above - a secret tip, he said. Well, we weren't alone, of course. But it was wonderful that we arrived at the hilltop just in time for the sunset. It was truly a fantastic ending to our stay in Beijing!