the summer palace

the marble boat

we finally went to the summer palace--one of beijing's main tourist destinations.  we found ourselves there not only not in the summer, but on an unbelievably cold and windy day.  the upside was that rather than being surrounded by other tourists we were almost completely alone which made the old park and it's various pavilions, pathways, and old buildings all the more beautiful.  we took refuge in a little snack shop drinking tea and thawing our hands while the wind blew the weeping willow branches horizontal outide and the tore the heavy insulating strips of plastic off the door of the shop.  we bent double in the wind back outside and fought our way along the lake pathway and through the endless ornately-painted open pavilion halls (pictured above and below.)