Beijing revisited - The Summer Palace

The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures

The gateway leading to the Garden of Harmonious Pleasures.

I first visited the Summer Palace back in 2011, on that short visit we walked through the covered walkway to the marble boat.  I loved what I had seen on my last visit, but had no idea of how much we had missed on our last visit to this beautiful place.

My daughter has visited the Summer Palace on a number of occasions, and this time she took us to some of the lesser known parts, starting with this gorgeous garden, known as the Garden of Harmonious Pleasures. I have to say that this garden is probably my favourite place from this holiday, to me this summoned up what I had always thought of as being the essence of China.

The Garden consists of a large pond, surrounded by pretty pagodas, winding walkways, bridges and beautiful pavilions. The winding walkways are made of  over 100 sections, joining the various bridges, and buildings.

There were an amazing number of fish in the pond.

Looking across the pond to some of the pavilions in this amazing peaceful place.

Such a lovely place to sit and while the summer days away.

Everywhere you looked were gorgeous views, fantastic for taking photos :)

Some of the winding walkways surrounding the pond.

The marble bridge from the opposite side of the pond.

Beautiful buildings hiding amongst the trees

Looking toward the marble bridge, so pretty :)

The marble bridge.

It is noticeable in China that the parks and palaces are enjoyed by many people, when they are as beautiful as this it is not really surprising :)

In this country if a tree was leaning this much it would have been taken down, instead the chinese have gone to a lot of trouble to prop it up with poles, which to me is amazing. :)

Finally I couldn't resist taking a photo of this man, enjoying his visit to the garden :)