We started off the day at The Summer Palace. This is effectively 'The Emperors Garden'. Spanning over 72 hectares in the middle of the city, a lake dominates the center. We walked through the main entrance, guarded by trees that are over 300 years old, (we knew this because they had red labels, as opposed to green labels that are for trees of between 100 and 300 years old) and very large, mounted lumps of volcanic rock.

The Chinese symbols of Turtles and Cranes (longevity) and Deer (happiness) are represented in bronze statues and stand dominantly in the main courtyard.

The last emperors mother (the doija) had her own residence here as well. Although only his stepmother, she had a heavy influence on his life.

All of the residential buildings were badly damaged by fire in wartime but in the 1920's they were restored to an exceptional standard.

As we moved away from the living area, we were met by the lake. Once completely covered by Lotus, Dragon boats now ferry visitors from one side to the other. They have kept the Lotus plants in the corners only now but we were fortunate enough to see a few flowers left over from the summer.

As we walked round the Lotus bed, we passed a tea room and came to the lake Opera house. Here the opera singers would get ready to entertain the imperial family and honoured guests.

We turned the corner and walked in to 'The Long Corridor'. This is a 728 meter pagoda walk way, decorated with 8000 individual paintings. It truly is an astounding piece of garden furniture - the work that went in to the hand painted pieces of art must have taken years of man hours!

We finished our visit to the gardens with a ride across the lake on a dragon boat. Another chance to see the beauty of the buildings and the corridor from a different perspective :)