The Summer Palace, Beijing

Next we drove on the bus to the Summer Palace.  It belonged to the Dragon Lady (Dowager).  She was the mother of the emperor’s only son.  When the boy was 5 years old his father, the emperor, died and the boy was the new emperor.  His mother told him what to do so she was really like the empress.  He died when he was 18 years old. Quickly the Dragon Lady named a new emperor.  He was only 4 years old so she told him what to do.  So she was really like the empress.  When he was 19 he decided to do what he wanted to do.  She locked him in a building with four sides and a courtyard in the middle. She could keep being like the empress. In fact she named herself the empress!

The Summer Palace was built on flat land BUT they dug a big lake with an island in the middle.  The dirt they dug to make the lake was used to make a mountain where they built the palace buildings.

 Near the building there was a very long walkway covered with a roof.  It was where the Dragon Lady would walk. 

 The Dragon Lady (Dowager) had a special boat. There was a belief that water (the people) floats the boat but if the boat (rulers) get too mean the water will capsize the boat.  This means that if you treat the people well you can continue to be their ruler but if you don’t you will be overthrown.

The Dragon Lady had the boat built out of marble.  She was afraid of the water so she had the boat built on a platform in the water with water moving around the boat. She would go and sit on the boat and pretend she was on the lake floating.

We bought tickets to go on a dragon boat across the lake, but not before getting an ice cream cone. I got tiramisu flavor and it was yummy!  Ice cream is always yummy. 

I finished my ice cream.  Now it was time to get on the dragon boat.  The front of the boat had a dragon’s head to see through the not so clear water. The back of the boat was shaped like a dragon’s rear end.  I walked on the boat and sat in the back near the dragon’s tail.

 When the boat took off the wind was cool.  It felt good after being really hot in the sun.

 We went past an island.  We could see a bridge that had many arches.  From the lake you could see the buildings of the Summer Palace behind us.

 We got back on the bus.