Beijing Trip Part 8

The 2009 Beijing Trip Posts are back, like after so long huh? Wasn't really that free to process the photos and informations previously as I was tied up with assignments, FYP presentations and final exams. But right now since I am already done with them, I just have to squeeze out some time to continue this photo journey which is coming to an end soon. So please do keep faith with it okay?

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Name : Beijing Trip Day 6 Part 1
Date : 1st Jan 2010
Place : Beijing Summer Palace, Shadow Puppetry Museum

It was Day 6 of our Beijing Trip and also the first day of year 2010. On new year eve, We thought there would be like fireworks scattering around the sky of Tian An Men Square but after being advised by our tourguide (which I doubted he was telling the truth), we decided to stay in our hotel and just watched the celebration from a dull TV. Apparently people over there werern't really that excited about the 1st January version of New Year, instead they were more like focusing on the lunar calender version of Chinese New Year. Furthermore it was so cold out there and I also thought that not many people would come out from their warm comfy house just to do some silly countdown. Please prove me wrong if it wasn't so okay??

So early in the morning of Day 6, we were brought to yet another government authorised shop where this time they were trying to sell us silk products. I will just briefly skip through this part as not many of us paid attention to them.

Displaying on their glass cabinet was a sample of the Qing Emperor's Dress.

while this showed an empress's dress.

Adult Silkworm.

Everyone knows who is this old lady right ?? 

(hint :The Empress Dowager CiXi 慈禧太后)

They were trying to make a selling point that even the royal family back in Qing Dynasty consumed silk products but who cares about it right?? =)

and we proceeded to our first destination of the day.

which was The Summer Palace of Beijing 颐和园.

some introduction about the place.

click to enlarge if you are interested to read it .

The ticket coutner.

We entered through the back yard actually.

it wasn't really a palace but instead was a very huge royal Garden,

as if the garden inside Forbbiden City wasn't large enough huh?

by the way this one was slightly over-exposed. =.=

1 of the largest museum among all royal gardens in China 文昌阁.

Photo photo a bit first.

Me wasn't ready.. =.=

a random pavillion beside the lake.

fantasizing which Emperor sat on it before.

playing with the artificial rocks.

posing with the frozen lake.

saw the bridge far behind there?

that was still part of the summer palace, 十七孔桥.

wonder how many winters have these trees withstood.

not the best view you would expect.

could look better during summer.

I mean Summer Palace wasn't meant to be visited during Winter right?

and these people would never understand the instructions huh?

Longevity Hill 万寿山.

where all the main buildings were located.

pathway to Longevity Hill.

A typical Qing Dynasty design.

Huge Garden Rock.

Have no idea why were they wrapping the tree with ropes.

乐寿堂, which used to be the living area for the Emperors.

邀月门, the entrance to Long Corridor.

some introduction about the Long Corridor.

as usual, click to enlarge if you are interested to read it.

as its name may have already suggested, 

Long Corridor is the longest corridor in the World with 728 meters,

just seems endless from here huh?

beside Long Corridor was another large area of Garden.

with many weird shaped trees.

both of them in the garden.

us with our Tour Guide for the entire trip, Mr. Chen.

Bokeh a little bit. lol.

back to the Long Corridor.

they had paintings on every beam of the roof.

An example was this "Journey To The West".

Photo of the Day.

Endless Corridor.

my hair looked so messy after taking down the winter hat.

But I still like this photo very much.

wow, discovered something interesting.

then finally we were at 仁寿殿, the main administration building in Summer Palace, sort of like their temporary office when they were staying over there (during Summer of course).

Just look at the number of the crowd and you don't feel like going over and see what's inside anymore. So a picture from the outside would do. =.=

They believe that taking picture with this QiLin will bring luck and prosperity.

Another huge Garden Rock.

Then we exited through this main door.

An extremely huge garden just for their living pleasure during the hot Summer, these Royal Family Members (especially the Emperor) were just too good in spending people's money wei... >.<

Hawkers at the roadside selling stuffs like roasted groundnuts,

see how they were attracted by incoming tourist buses?

Next we visited this Shadow Puppetry Museum.

which looked more like an abandoned building from outside.

Does he have the potential to become a model?

The shadow puppetry performers were actually dwarfs recruited from everywhere around China because youngsters nowadays are not interested in picking up this traditional performing art. So those dwarfs have to do it for their livings.

This not so professional performance shown from the photo was actually led by us as we were invited to the backstage to play around with the puppets.

Pretty pathetic case in my opinion because nobody is willing to learn and popularize it and soon it will just disappear along with the wave of globalization. 

But then think again, don't Malaysia's own version of shadow puppetry facing the same problem too? *sigh*

We still had a few more places to go for Day 6 and I shall reserve them for the next post. So stay tuned.

Coming Up Next : Another Royal Garden from the Qing Dynasty, but now only ruins are left.