Fragrant Hills

Last day of the long weekend and it's another gorgeously sunny one. People tell us we're very lucky; it's true, we seem to have had a year of blue skies in our first two months. We headed off early, with new-found friends Uli & Joon and their two young children, to Xiangshan Park, otherwise known as Fragrant Hills, just to the west of the city. It's a big forested area with trails ascending to Incense-Burner Peak. By the North Gate is the beautiful Azure Clouds Temple which dates from 1331 and leads to Vajrasana Pavilion where Sun Yat Sen's body was kept for four years after his death (can't remember why). Then, back into the park proper to join half of China. These were the crowds we'd been warned about, but it was just about bearable - although the steep trails defeated our buggy-lumbered friends and they retired to the park's I M Pei-designed hotel for a beer. We failed to make it to the top too.

On the way back we stopped off at the Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan) not to be confused with the Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan). This is now just ruins dotted between lakes, the result of British and French forces destroying the place in 1860 (Opium Wars), and again in 1900 (Boxer Rebellion). It's been left as it is to remind people what it's like to be dominated by foreign powers. Guilty consciences aside, we enjoyed a pleasant stroll, the girls playing cat & mouse with photographers. Hordes of people again but it was a big enough place to be tolerable.