Summer Palace, Olympic Site & The Hutong Area

The Summer Palace was the playground for emperors to come out of the the old imperial city.  The huge Kunming Lake and the hilltop views are great landscape backgrounds for traditional Chinese paintings.

Longevity Hill overlooks the lake.

The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, is the main structure.

The Long Corridor stretches 730 m, with it's beautiful paintings, along the northeast shore of Kunming Lake and behind this are the slopes of Longevity Hill with the Buddest temples.

The Marble Boat sits immobile on the north shore and this symbolizes life will be good for a long time.

17 - arch Bridge spans 150 m across to the lake to the eastern shore.

The Jade River is lined with willow and mulberry trees and flows into Kuming Lake.

From here we went to the Olympic Site for the Beijing Games.  We were able to get pictures of the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Water Cube.  Very impressive sights.

The Hutong Area is a mix of old and new.  There are a lot of bars and restaurants around,  along the streets which bring in a lot of tourists.

This is also where we took our rickshaw ride through the Hutong streets to where we enjoyed a tasty meal in a local family's home.