Saturday, September 27, 2008

Beijing

I just finished overnight KTV with friends from China. It's 6am in the morning. We all looked tired.

Summer palace

4 comments:

Brad Blackstone said...

Where is this?

Carolyn said...

If I remember correctly, this is 圆明园(yuan ming yuan), I can't find the english term. It was the place where Emperor of Qing Dynasty work and play. There was a maze, fountain, small model of city of Venice in this park.
However, it was destroyed in 1860 by combined army of France and English.
I could only witness the destruction and rubbles. It was believed by my friend it serves as a constant reminder of warning and lesson for China people.

Carolyn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carolyn said...

Sorry it's not yuan ming yuan. It is Summer Palace. I just checked. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. It was believed that if she had wisely invested in Chinese navy, China would not give up easily in the war.