On my last full day before leaving Beijing, I visited the Summer Palace. Built around a lake on the north-west side of the city, the summer palace was the place where the Emperor would go in the summer when it got too hot in the Forbidden City. This place was also home to one of the empresses in the late 1890s.

While the Summer Palace is still pretty close to the city, it feels like a whole other world with its waterways and waterfront palaces. I especially loved the small street, Suzhou Street, towards the beginning of the visit, with all of its nice shops by the canal. Just like the Temple of Heaven, this place was filled with people, even though the temperature hit 34 degrees Celcius in the afternoon. It’s a dry heat, but it is still quite striking.

I might have gotten a bit trigger happy as you will see below, and these are just the ones I selected to show online. Thank goodness for digital photography! 🙂