After the Forbidden City, I took a taxi to go to the Summer Palace, which is quite far from the centre. This is probably the spot which surprised me the most in Beijing in a positive way, as I did not expect it.
It is a huge area in the northeastern part of Beijing, dominated by a big lake, and surrounded by nature and some small hills. A real relaxing place, which probably delighted many chinese emperors in the past.
For good and for bad, I went in Winter, so once again I did not suffer crowds of people, but on the other hand, the lake was frozen, and one would not sit down for a long time to enjoy the “fresh air”… 😉
One of the reasons to visit Beijing is the Forbidden City. To tell you the truth, when I was a child I did not really know what was this about. I knew it was in Peking, and that was some kind of palace (I was right with this) but I thought the entrance was really forbidden. Some years ago, I realized it is just the name it got because the entrance was forbidden for many people when the emperor lived.
Now, it is the one of the biggest and well preserved palaces in the world, and its visit in a normal not too busy winter day takes a good couple of hours. This has been for me one of the most interesting sights in the trip, and a must in Beijing, although some people I met were not specially surprised for this…
