The Old Summer Palace – the ruins.

This was the bit I wanted to see most, it gives some small idea of how the gateway must have once looked.

The ruins of the buildings at The Old Summer Palace are spread over a large area. To see large pieces of beautifully carved marble just lying around is really very sad. I am sure the buildings which once stood on this site were amazing, and although we didn’t see any of the ones that are left I have seen photos on Google of parts of the park that we missed and there are some lovely buildings.  If I get back out to Beijing again, this is one site I would happily revisit, and suspect that one day would just not be enough to see everything.

There are notices everywhere saying ‘no climbing’, but everyone was climbing over everything.

This must have been a beautiful lion statue.

We saw lots of people having their photos taken here.

Beautifully carved pieces of marble everywhere you looked.

Quite a few pieces have numbers on, maybe at some time in the future there will be some mini reconstructions like the gate in the first photo.

 

Alice standing beside a reconstructed door header.

And me with a silly grin…..lol

The centre of a pond, it looks like it is the base of a fountain.

This was what Alice wanted to see most of all – the remains of a once fantastic fountain.

Alice in front of the fountain.

What a fabulous sight this must have been when it was in working order.

 

Carved marble pieces everywhere you look, it is sad to see.

The gateway again, in the late afternoon sun, it is an amazing sight. I have seen photos of this with people climbing all over it, this area is now fenced off.

Close up photos of some of the carvings on the gateway.

Just to prove we really were there

One more blog on the Old Summer Palace to come, below is a teaser photo, any idea what this lovely little pavilion is doing in the middle of the ruins?