Chengde 承德
星期二, 六月 13, 2006
on the grounds of the Mountain Resort
Changed the site template slightly so I can display larger photos. Like the ones from the weekend trip to Chengde aka "the other Summer Palace". This one is about a 4 hour train ride outside of Beijing... or you could follow our lead and take a bus for the same duration and price.
I use the term "bus" loosely to describe, not a Greyhound-esque coach, but a large minibus with little legroom and not much suspension (makes for a sore bottom over bumpy roads). But you don't notice such things when the driver is maneuvering around traffic like a maniac, which is perfectly normal behavior when everyone else on the highway is a manic driver too.
So after four hours, one hour of which the bus, I kid you not, stopped on the shoulder in the middle of the highway to pick up more passengers - how did people know that's the bus stop?! - we arrive in the town of Chengde. This quaint little place thrives entirely on tourism, specifically 避暑山庄 the Mountain Resort where Qing emperors used to come to escape from Beijing's summer heat. We came to escape from Beijing's pollution. It is also apparently the world's largest existing imperial garden (thank you wikipedia).
It's a nice place to walk around; vast green spaces, a few lakes... and a lot of these:
Chris rummages for something to feed the hungry masses
Aren't they cute! They are definitely not wild but we're not sure where they come from or who breeds them.
Other major attractions are the Eight Outer Temples flanking the resort, a series of Buddhist temples, of which the most famous are the 普陀宗乘 Putuo Zongcheng (built to resemble the Potala Palace in Tibet):
the mini-me of Tibet's Potala Palace
a monk spinning prayer wheels
And the 普宁寺 Puning Temple which houses the worlds largest statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. Actually, her full name is 千手千眼大悲观世音菩萨 or The Compassionate Boddhissatva with a Thousand Hands and Eyes, which is admittedly, a very long name, but only appropriate for something that is this size:
Guanyin in all her (slightly blurry) glory
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