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Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Summer Palace

Yesterday was such a beautiful day for mid-October that we were finally motivated to do a little sightseeing here in Beijing. We decided to visit the Summer Palace, which was historically used as a summer getaway for the emperor and his entourage. The palace was originally built by emperors of the Jin Dynasty in the 12th century, but it was expanded and renovated in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother's sixtieth birthday. (Kind of makes me feel bad about not getting my mom a 60th birthday present!)

Some of the cool things to see are Kunming Lake, where you can go paddle boating; Longevity Hill, which houses various buddha statues; a marble boat, which Empress Cixi was accused of embezzling money from the Chinese navy to construct; and the the Long Corridor, which is 728 meters long. We also saw some gentlemen practicing their drawing and calligraphy. We probably didn't cover even a third of what there is to see there, so we will definitely have to go back some day, though maybe we will wait until Seth is a proficient walker.

Seth was the center of attention, of course. A crowd of fans was quick to gather round any time we stopped. Everyone wanted to take pictures of him and with him. It's strange to think how Seth is going to be in photo albums all across Beijing, and maybe even across China! He was quite the ham and seemed to enjoy being in the spotlight for the most part.